FARMERS OF FORTY CENTURIES 



FARMERS OF 
FORTY CENTURIES 

OR PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 

IN CHINA, KOREA AND JAPAN 

"By 

¥\ H. KING, D.Sc. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURAL PHYSICS IN THE UNIVERSITY 

OF WISCONSIN AND CHIEF OF DIVISION OF SOIL MANAGEMENT, 

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Edited by 
Professor]. P. BRUCE, M.A., Litt.D. 



ORGANIC GARDENING PRESS 
EMMAUS, PENNSYLVANIA 






Cops*. 



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PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAOr 

PREFACE 13 

INTRODUCTION 15 

I FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 27 

II GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 53 

III TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 63 

IV UP THE SI-KLVNG, WEST RIVER 80 

V EXTENT OF CANALIZATION AND SURFACE FITTING OF 

FIELDS 93 

VI SOME CUSTOMS OF THE COMMON PEOPLE 109 

VII THE FUEL PROBLEM, BUILDING AND TEXTILE MATERIALS 123 

VIII TRAMPS AFIELD 149 

IX THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 171 

X IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 191 

XI ORIENTALS CROWD BOTH TIME AND SPACE 230 

XII RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 238 

XIII SILK CULTURE 273 

XIV THE TEA INDUSTRY 284 
XV ABOUT TIENTSIN 291 

XVI MANCHURIA AND KOREA 304 

XVII RETURN TO JAPAN 329 
MESSAGE OF CHINA AND JAPAN TO THE WORLD. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

no PAOB 

1 Rainy weather costume 28 

2 Drying seaweed 31 

3 Growing seaweed 31 

4 Trellised pear orchard in winter 33 

5 Pear trees at Akashi Experiment Station 33 

6 Pears protected by paper bags 34 

7 Street in country village, Japan 35 

8 Chinese country village along canal 36 

9 Japanese rice fields 38 

10 Rice fields in Korea 39 

11 Rice fields in Yangtse delta 40 

12 Readjusted rice fields in Japan 42 

13 Rice in paddy fields, crops on the dikes . 43 

14 Crowded peach orchard 44 

15 Cucumbers trellised, over greens 46 

16 Chinese farmer in winter dress 47 

17 Gardens crowded about buildings, Japan 48 

18 Vegetable vender, Japan 50 

19 Terraced gardens at Nagasaki 51 

20 Graves in Yangtse delta 54 

21 Graves near Shanghai and Canton 55 

22 Graves on river bank and in garden 56 

23 Graves in barley field 58 

24 Family group of graves 58 

25 Graves decorated 60 

26 Group of grass-grown graves 61 

27 Wheelbarrow freighters in China 62 

28 Sawing lumber in China 65 

29 Scene in florist's garden, Hong-Kong 66 

30 Garden in Happy Valley 68 

31 Receptacles for human waste 69 

32 Water piped from mountain side to garden 70 

33 Terraced garden 71 

34 Winter gardening 73 

35 Boat load of human waste 74 

36 Chinese foot-power 78 

7 



8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fia. PAO« 

37 ]\t\ilberry field fertilized with mud 82 

38 Fields of rice and matting rush 85 

39 Fork shaped from limbs of tree 86 

40 Landscape at Sam Shui, near Canton 88 

41 Winter grown peas after rice • 89 

42 Fields Hooded and fertilized for rice 90 

43 Fields of ginger 91 

44 Map of canals in Chekiang province 94 

45 Map of 2.700 miles of canal 95 
40 Map showing plains and Grand Canal 97 

47 GradtMl fields 104 

48 Collecting reservoir 106 

49 Compost pits beside path 107 

50 Trenched fields 107 

51 Stone mill 111 

52 Laying warp 112 

53 Dve pits 113 

54 Salted cabbage 115 

55 Chinese clover 118 

56 Vegetable market 120 

57 Lotus pond 121 

58 Charcoal balls 124 

59 Coimtry woman in winter dress 126 

60 Boat loads of fuel 129 

61 Cotton stem fuel 130 

62 Rice straw fuel 131 

63 Dairy herd of water InitTalo 133 

64 Water buffalo and calf 134 

65 Pine bough fuel 135 

66 Houseboat on Chinese canal 136 

67 Forest cutting on hillsides 138 

68 Pine and oak bough fuel 138 

69 Pine nursery 139 

70 Dried grass' fuel 140 

71 Kaoliang fuel 141 

72 Fuel coming from the hills 143 

73 INIillel -thatch and mud plaster ' 144 

74 Air-dried earth brick 145 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9 

FIG. PAGE 

75 House building 146 

76 Brick kiln 147 

77 Fertilizing with canal mud 150' 

78 Stairways used in carrying mud from canal 152 

79 Mulberry orchard 154 

80 Snail shells in canal mud 156 

81 Chinese incubators 158 

82 Boat load of eggs 160 

83 Carrying compost 161 

84 Compost pit 162 

85 Compost pit and clover 163 

86 Composting 164 

87 Building clover compost stack 165 

88 Dredging canal mud 166 

89 Compost stack 167 

90 Fitting for rice 169 

91 Manure boats in Shanghai 172 

92 Map of Shanghai region 173 

93 Receptacles for human waste 176 

94 Storage pits for liquid manure 177 

95 Carrying pails for liquid manure 177 

96 Applying liquid manure with dipper 178 

97 Results 180 

98 Laborious green manuring, Japan 184 

99 Returning from Genya lands 185 

100 Chart issued by Nara Experiment Station 187 

101 Compost house, Nara Experiment Station 188 

102 View in Reforestation tract, Tsingtao 193 

103 Reforestation, Tsingtao 194 

104 Reforestation, Tsingtao 195 

105 Wild yellow rose. Shantung 196 

106 Shantung plough 199 

107 Irrigating outfit 201 

108 Soil erosion in Shantung 203 

109 Water-carrier 204 

110 Chinese farmyard 205 

111 Wheat in Shantung 210 

112 Vehicles of forty centuries 211 



10 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAQB 

113 Wheat in hills and rows 212 

114 Seed-drill 213 

115 Hoeing grain 215 

116 Plastered compost stack 216 

117 Home after the day's work 217 

118 Farm village street 220 

119 Stone mill 226 

120 Peanut cakes and paper demijohn 226 

121 Pulverizing human excreta 227 

122 Fertilizing 228 

123 Foot-power pump and grain in beds 231 

124 \\Tieat in which cotton is planted 232 

125 Same field, wheat harvested 233 

126 Multiple crops 234 

127 Green manuring 235 

128 Multiple crops in Chihli 236 

129 Cutting wheat roots 237 

130 Compost shelter and pig pen 237 

131 Suggested conservation 240 

132 Rice fields in Japan 242 

133 Rice fields in China 243 

134 Terraced rice fields, Japan 244 

135 Steep narrow valley with paddy fields 245 

136 Egg plants between paddy fields 248 

137 Watermelons between paddy fields 248 

138 Watermelons and tare 249 

139 Home of Mrs. Wu 250 

140 Pumping station 251 

141 Pumping plant 252 

142 Nursery rice beds 253 

143 Harrow in ploughed field 254 

144 Revolving wooden harrow 255 

145 Women pulling rice 256 

146 Transplanting rice in China 257 

147 Transplanting rice in rainy weather 258 

148 Transplanting rice in Japan 259 

149 Weeding rice ' 260 

150 Boat load of grass for green manure 261 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 11 

FIO. PAGE 

151 Applying chaff as fertilizer 261 

152 Well sweep and water bucket for irrigation 262 

153 Chinese foot-power and chain pump 263 

154 Fields flooded for rice 264 

155 Japanese irrigation foot- wheel 265 

156 Pump shelter on bank of canal, China 266 

157 Harvesting rice in Japan 267 

158 Curing rice 267 

159 Winnowing rice in Japan 268 

160 Polishing rice 269 

161 Sacking rice 270 

162 Loading rice for shipment 271 

163 Preparing silkworm eggs for hatching 274 

164 Feeding silkworms 275 

165 Tending silkworms 276 

166 Sorting cocoons 277 

167 Mulberry orchard 277 

168 Mulberry tree many times pruned 278 

169 Mulberry orchard partly pruned 280 

170 ]\Iulberry trees on embankment 281 

171 Tea garden 286 

172 Tea plantation on hillside 287 

173 Picking tea in Japan 288 

174 Weighing fresh tea 289 

175 Salt stacks and windmills 293 

176 Salt evaporating basins 294 

177 Chinese windmill 295 

178 Village on the Pei-ho 297 

179 Hoeing grain 299 

180 Chinese hoe 300 

181 Harvesting wheat 301 

182 Shipping soy beans from Manchuria 307 

183 Wild white rose 310 

184 Millet and beans 317 

185 Korean farm houses 321 

186 Korean rice fields 322 

187 Green manuring 323 

188 Bice paddies in mountain valley 325 



12 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIG. PAGE 

189 Eroding hillside, Korea 325 

190 Swinging scoop for irrigation 326 

191 Green manuring 330 

192 Fukuoka Experiment Station 334 

193 Japanese ploughs 335 

194 Test rice plots at Fukuoka Experiment Station 336 

195 Terraced valley in Japan 339 

196 Group of houses among paddy fields 340 

197 Fields of matting rush 341 

198 Japanese girls playing flower cards 342 

199 Fertilizing rice with old stubble 345 

200 Irrigating with foot-power water-wheel 346 

201 Beauty at home in Japan 348 

202 Admiring cherry blossoms 350 

203 Field of indigo, Japan 352 

204 Shizuoka Experiment Station 357 

205 Landscapes in Tokyo plain 359 

206 Straw mulching 361 

207 Soil study field, Imperial Agr. Experiment Station, 363 

Tokyo 

208 Equipment for soil studies, Imperial Agr. Experiment 364 

Station, Tokyo 

209 Toil may not cea?3 369 



PREFACE 

BY DR. L. H. BAILEY 

WE have not yet gathered up the experience of mankind 
in the tilling of the earth; yet the tilling of the earth is 
the bottom condition of civilization. If we are to assemble all 
the forces and agencies that make for the final conquest of the 
planet, we must assuredly know how it is that all the peoples 
in all places have met the problem of producing their sustenance 
out of the soil. 

We have had few great agricultural travellers and few books 
that describe the real and significant rural conditions. Of natural 
history travel we have had very much ; and of accounts of 
sights and events perhaps we have had too many. There are, to 
be sure, famous books of study and travel in rural regions, and 
some of them, as Arthur Young's Travels in France, have touched 
social and political history; but for the most part, authorship of 
agricultural travel is yet undeveloped. The spirit of scientific 
inquiry must now be taken into this field, and all earth-conquest 
must be compared and the results given to the people that work. 

This was the point of view from which I read Professor King's 
manuscript. It is the ^Titing of a well-trained observer who went 
forth not to find diversion or to depict scenery and common 
wonders, but to study the actual conditions of life of agricultural 
peoples. We in North America are wont to think that we may 
instruct all the world in agriculture, because our agricultural 
wealth is great and our exports to less favoured peoples have 
been heavy; but this wealth is great because our soil is fertile 
and new, and in large acreage for every person. We have really 
only begun to farm well. The first condition of farming is to 
maintain fertility. This condition the oriental peoples have met, 
and they have solved it in their way. We may never adopt 
particular methods, but we can profit vastly by their experience. 
With the increase of personal wants in recent time, the newer 
countries may never reach such density of population as have 
Japan and China ; but we must nevertheless learn the first lesson 
in the conservation of natural resources, which are the resources 
of the land. This is the message that Professor King brought 
home from the East. 

13 



14 PREFACE 

This book on agriculture should have good effect in establishing 
understanding between the West and the East. If there could 
be such an interchange of courtesies and inquiries on these 
themes as is suggested by Professor King, as well as the inter- 
change of athletics and diplomacy and commerce, the common 
productive people on both sides shoidd gain much that they could 
use; and the results in amity should be incalculable. 

It is a misfortune that Professor King could not have lived 
to write the concluding Message of China and Japan to the World. 
It would have been a careful and forceful summary of his study 
of eastern conditions. At the moment when the work was 
going to the printer, he was called suddenly to the endless journey 
and his travel here was left incomplete. But he bequeathed us 
a new piece of literature, to add to his standard writings on soils 
and on the applications of physics and devices to agriculture. 
Whatever he touched he illuminated. 

L. H. Bailey. 



INTKODUCTION 

A WORD of introduction is needed to place the reader at 
the best view-point from which to consider what is said in 
the following pages regarding the agricultural practices and 
customs of China, Korea and Japan. It should be borne in mind 
that the great factors which to-day characterize and determine 
the agricultural and other industrial operations of western 
nations were physical impossibilities to them as to all other 
peoples one hundred years ago. 

It should be observed, too, that the United States as yet 
is a nation of but few people widely scattered over a broad virgin 
land with more than twenty acres to the support of every man, 
woman and child, while the people whose practices are to be 
considered are toiling in fields which have been tilled for more than 
three thousand years and who have scarcely more than two acres 
'per capita,^ more than one-half of which is uncultivable mountain 
land. 

Again, the great movement of cargoes of feeding-stuffs and 
mineral fertilizers to western Europe and to the eastern United 
States began less than a century ago and has never been possible 
as a means of maintaining soil fertility in China, Korea or Japan, 
nor can it be continued indefinitely in either Europe or America. 
These importations are for the time making tolerable the waste 
of plant food materials through our modern systems of sewage 
disposal and other faulty practices; but the Mongolian races have 
held all such wastes, both urban and rural, and many others 
which we ignore, sacred to agriculture, applying them to their 
fields. 

We are to consider some of the practices of a virile race of 
some 500 millions of people who have an unimpaired inheritance 
moving with the momentum acquired through 4,000 years; a 
people morally and intellectually strong, mechanically capable, 
who are awakening to a utilization of all the possibilities which 
science and invention during recent years have brought to 
western nations; and a people who have long dearly loved peace 
but who can and will fight in self-defence if compelled to do so. 

* This figure was wrongly stated in the first edition as one acre, owing 
to a mistake in confusing the area of cultivated land with total area. 

15 



16 INTRODUCTION 

We had long desired to stand face to face with Chinese and 
Japanese farmers, the oldest farmers in the world; to walk through 
their fields and to learn by seeing some of their methods, ap- 
pliances and practices which centuries of stress and experience 
have led them to adopt. We desired to learn how it is possible, 
after twenty and perhaps thirty or even forty centuries, for 
their soils to be made to produce sufficiently for the maintenance 
of such dense populations as are living now in these three coun- 
tries. We have now had this opportunity and almost every day we 
were instructed in the ways and extent to which these nations 
for centuries have been conserving and utilizing their natural 
resources; we were surprised at the magnitude of the returns 
they are getting from their fields, and amazed at the amount of 
efficient human labour cheerfully given for a daily wage of five 
cents and their food, or for fifteen cents, United States currency, 
without food. 

The three main islands of Japan in 1907 had a population of 
46,977,003 maintained on 20,000 square miles of cultivated 
field. This is at the rate of more than three people to each acre, 
and of 2,349 to each square mile ; and yet the total agricultural 
imports into Japan in 1907 exceeded the agricultural exports 
by less than one dollar jper capita . If the cultivated land of Hol- 
land is estimated at but one-third of her total area, the density 
of her population in 1905 was, on this basis, less than one-third 
that of Japan in her three main islands. At the same time Japan 
is feeding 69 horses and 56 cattle, nearly all labouring animals, 
to each square mile of cultivated field, while in the same area 
on an average we in the United States were feeding in 1900 not 
more than 30 horses and mules, our labouring animals. 

As coarse food transformers Japan was maintaining 16,500,000 
domestic fowl, 825 per square mile, but only one for almost three 
of her people. We were maintaining, in 1900, 250,600,000 
poultry, but only 387 per square mile of cultivated field and yet 
more than three foT each person. Japan's coarse food trans- 
formers in the form of swine, goats and sheep aggregated but 13 
to the square mile and provided but one of these units for each 
180 of her people; while in the United States in 1900 there were 
being maintained, as transformers of grass and coarse grain into 
meat and milk, 95 cattle, 99 sheep and 72 swine per each square 



DENSITY OF POPULATION 17 

mile of improved farms. In this reckoning each of the cattle 
should be counted as the equivalent of perhaps five of the sheep 
and swine, for the transforming power of the dairy cow is high. 
On this basis we are maintaining at the rate of more than 646 
of the Japanese units per square mile, and more than five of 
these to every man, woman and child, instead of one to every 
180 of the population, as is the case in Japan. 

Correspondingly accurate statistics are not accessible for 
China, but in the Shantung province we talked with a farmer 
having 12 in his family who kept one donkey, one cow, both 
exclusively labouring animals, and two pigs on 2-5 acres of cul- 
tivated land where he grew wheat, millet, sweet potatoes and 
beans. Here is a density of population equal to 3,072 people, 
256 donkeys, 256 cattle and 512 swine per square mile. In 
another instance where the holding was one and two-thirds 
acres the farmer had 10 in his family and was maintaining one 
donkey and one pig, showing for this farm land a maintenance 
capacity of 3,840 people, 384 donkeys and 384 pigs to the square 
mile ; or 240 people, 24 donkeys and 24 pigs to one of our forty- 
acre farms which our farmers regard too small for a single family. 
The average of seven Chinese holdings which we visited and 
where we obtained similar data indicates a maintenance capacity 
of 1,783 people, 212 cattle or donkeys and 399 swine -1,995 
consumers and 399 rough food transformers per square mile 
of farm land. These statements for China represent strictly rural 
populations. The rural population of the United States in 1900 
was placed at 61 per square mile of improved farm land and there 
were 30 horses and mules. In Japan the rural population had a 
density in 1907 of 1,922 per square mile, and in addition there 
were 125 horses and cattle. 

The population of the large island of Chungming in the mouth 
of the Yangtse River, with an area of 270 square miles, possessed, 
according to the official census of 1902, a density of 3,700 per 
square mile; and yet, as there is but one large city on the island, 
the population is largely rural. 

It could not be other than a matter of the highest industrial, 
educational and social importance to any nation if it could be 
furnished with a full and accurate account of all those conditions 
which have made it possible for such dense populations to be 



18 INTRODUCTION 

maintained upon the products of Chinese, Korean and Japanese 
soils. Many of the steps, phases and practices through which 
this evohition has passed are irrevocably buried in the past, but 
such remarkable maintenance efficiency attained centuries ago 
and projected into the present with little apparent decadence 
merits the most profound study. Living as we are in the morning 
of a century of transitit)n irom isolattnl to cosmopolitan national 
life, when profound readjustmonts, industrial, educational and 
social, must result, such an investigation cannot be made too 
soon. It is high time for each nation to study other nations and, 
by mutual agreement and co-operative effort, the results of 
such studies should be made availabh^ for the rest, so that all may 
become co-ordinate and nuitually helpfvd component factors in 
the world's progress. 

One very appropriate and immensely helpful means for 
attacking this problem would be for the higher educational 
institutions of all nations, instead of exchanging courtesies 
through their baseball teams, to send select bodies of their best 
students, under competent leadership and by international 
agreement, both east and west, to study specific problems. 
Such a moven\ent. well conceived and directed, manned by the 
most capable young men, would spread broadcast a body of 
important knowledge which woukl contribute immensely to 
world peace and world progress. If some broad plan of inter- 
iKvtional effort such as is here suggested were organized, the 
cxjH>nse of maintenance might well be met by diverting so much 
as is needful from the large sums set aside for the expansion of 
navies; for such steps as these, taken in the interests of world 
uplift and world peace, could not fail to be more efficacious and 
less expeiisive than increase in fighting equipment. It would 
cultivate the spirit of pulling together anil of a scjuare deal rather 
than one of holding aloof and of striving to gain unneighbourly 
advantage. 

Many factors and conditions conspire to give to the farms and 
farmers of the Far East their high maintenance efficiency, and 
sonu' of these may be succinctly statetl. The portions of China, 
Korea and Japan, where dense populations have developed and 
are being maintained, occupy exceptionally favourable geo- 
graphic positions so far as these influence agricultiu-al production. 



RAINFALL AND CROPS 19 

Canton in the south of China has the latitude of Havana, Cuba, 
wliile Mukdon in Manchuria, and northern Honshu in Japan, 
are only as far north as New York city, Chicago and northern 
California. The United States lies mainly between 50° and 30° 
of latitude, while these three countries lie between 40° and 20°, 
some 700 miles further south. This difi'crencc of position, giving 
them longer seasons, has made it possible for them to devise 
systems of agriculture whereby they grow two, three and even 
four crops on the same piece of ground each year. In southern 
China, in Formosa and in parts of Japan two crops of rice are 
grown; in the Chekiang province there may be a crop of rape, 
of wheat or barley or of Windsor beans or clover which is followed 
in midsummer by another of cotton or of rice. In the Shantung 
province wheat or barley in the winter and spring may be followed 
in summer by large or small millet, sweet potatoes, soy beans 
or peanuts. At Tientsin, 39° north, in the latitude of Cincinnati, 
Indianapolis, and Springfield, Illinois, we talked with a farmer 
who followed his crop of wheat on his small holding with one of 
onions and the onions with cabbage, realizing from the three 
crops at the rate of $163, gold, per acre; and with another who 
planted Irish potatoes at the earliest opportunity in the spring, 
marketing them when small, then followed these with radishes, 
and the radishes with cabbage, realizing from the three crops 
at the rate of $203 per acre. 

Nearly 500,000,000 people are being maintained, chiefly upon 
the products of an area smaller than the improved farm lands 
of the United States. Complete a square on the lines drawn 
from Chicago southward to the Gulf and westward across Kansas, 
and there will be enclosed an area greater than the cultivated 
fields of China, Korea and Japan, from which five times our 
present population are fed. 

The rainfall in these countries is not only larger than that 
even in our Atlantic and Gulf States, but it falls more exclusively 
during the summer season when its efficiency in crop production 
may be highest. South China has a rainfall of some 80 inches 

In Sliantung there arc not two crops every year, but three crops 
in two years. The usual rotation is: Wheat in spring, beans in October, 
after which millet is sown and gathered in the following September. 
[Ed.] 



20 INTRODUCTION 

with little of it during the winter, while in our southern states 
the rainfall is nearer 60 inches with less than one-half of it 
between June and September. Along a line drawn from Lake 
Superior through central Texas the yearly precipitation is about 
30 inches, but only 16 inches of this falls during the months of 
May to September; while in the Shantung province, China, with 
an annual rainfall of little more than 24 inches, 17 of these fall 
during the months designated and most of this in July and 
August. When it is stated that under the best tillage and with no 
loss of water through percolation, most of our agricultural crops 
require 300 to 600 tons of water for each ton of dry substance 
brought to maturity, it can be readily understood that the right 
amount of available moisture, coming at the proper time, must 
be one of the prime factors of a high maintenance capacity for 
any soil, and hence that in the Far East, with their intensive 
methods, it is possible to make their soils yield large returns. 

The selection of rice and of the millets as the great staple food 
crops of the three nations specified, and the systems of agriculture 
they have evolved so as to realize the largest possible yield from 
them, are to us remarkable, and indicate a grasp of essential 
principles which may well cause western nations to pause and 
reflect. 

Notwithstanding the large and favourable rainfall of these 
countries, the people have in each case selected the one crop 
which permits them to utilize not only practically the entire 
amount of rain which falls upon their fields, but in addition 
enormous volumes of the run-off from adjacent uncultivable 
mountain coinitry. Wherever paddy fields are practicable there 
rice is grown. In the three main islands of Japan 56 per cent of 
the cultivated fields, 11,000 square miles, is laid out for rice- 
growing and is maintained under water from transplanting to 
near harvest time, after which the land is allowed to dry, to be 
devoted to dry land crops during the balance of the year, where 
the season permits. 

To anyone who studies the agricultural methods of the Far 
East in the field it is evident that these people, centuries ago, 
came to appreciate the value of water in crop production as 
no other nations have. They have adapted conditions to crops 
and crops to conditions to such a pitch that in rice they have 



FERTILIZATION 21 

produced a cereal which permits the most intense fertilization 
and at the same time ensures the maximum yields against both 
drought and flood. With the practice of western nations in all 
humid climates, no matter how completely and highly we fertilize, 
in more years than not, yields are reduced by a deficiency or an 
excess of water. 

It is difficult to convey, by word or map, an adequate concep- 
tion of the magnitude of the systems of canalization which 
contribute primarily to rice culture. A conservative estimate 
would place the miles of canals in China at fully 200,000, and there 
are probably more miles of canal in China, Korea and Japan 
than there are miles of railroad in the United States. China alone 
has as many acres in rice each year as the United States has in 
wheat, and her annual product is more than double and probably 
threefold our annual wheat crop, and yet the whole of the rice 
area produces at least one and sometimes two other crops each 
year. 

The selection of the quick-maturing, drought-resisting millets 
as the great staple food crops to be grown wherever water is not 
available for irrigation, and the almost universal planting in hills 
or drills, and so making possible the utilization of earth mulches 
in conserving soil moisture, has enabled these people for centuries 
past to secure maximum returns in seasons of drought and in 
places where the rainfall is small. The millets thrive in the hot 
summer climates; they survive when the available soil moisture 
is reduced to a low limit, and they grow vigorously when the 
heavy rains come. Thus we find that in the Far East, with more 
rainfall and a better distribution of it than occurs in the United 
States, and with warmer, longer seasons, these people have with 
rare wisdom combined both irrigation and dry farming methods 
to an extent and with an intensity far beyond anything our 
people have ever dreamed of, in order that they might maintain 
these dense populations. 

Notwithstanding the fact that in each of these countries the 
soils are naturally more than ordinarily deep, inherently fertile 
and enduring, judicious and rational methods of fertilization are 
everywhere practised; but not until recent years, and only in 
Japan, have mineral commercial fertilizers been used. For cen- 
turies, however, the canals, streams and the sea have been made 



22 INTEODUCTION 

to contribute toward the fertilization of cultivated fields, and 
these contributions in the aggregate have been large. In China, 
in Korea and in Japan all but the inaccessible portions of their 
vast extent of mountain and hill lands have long been taxed 
to their full capacity for fuel, timber, and herbage, for green 
manure and compost material; and the ash of practically all 
the fuel and of all the timber used in the home finds its way 
ultimately to the fields as fertilizer. 

In China enormous quantities of canal mud are applied to the 
fields, sometimes at the rate of even 70 and more tons per acre. 
So, too, where there are no canals, both soil and subsoil are 
carried into the villages and there they are, at the expense 
of great labour, composted with organic refuse, then dried and 
pulverized, and finally carried back to the fields to be used as 
home-made fertilizers. Manure of all kinds, human and animal, 
• is religiously saved and applied to the fields in a manner which 
secures an efficiency far above our own practices. Statistics 
obtained through the Bureau of Agriculture, Japan, place the 
amount of human waste in that country in 1908 at 23,950,295 
tons, or 1-75 tons per acre of her cultivated land. The Inter- 
national Concession of the city of Shanghai, in 1908, sold to a 
Chinese contractor the privilege of entering residences and 
public places early in the morning of each day in the year and 
removing the night soil, at a price of more than $31,000, gold, 
for 78,000 tons of waste. AVe expend much larger sums in throw- 
ing all this away ! 

Japan's production of fertilizing material, regularly prepared 
and applied to the land annually, amounts to more than 4-5 
tons per acre of cultivated field exclusive of the commercial 
fertilizers purchased. Between Shanhaikwan and Mukden in 
Manchuria we passed, on June 18th, thousands of tons of the dry 
highly nitrified compost soil recently carried into the fields and 
laid down in piles where it was waiting to be ' fed to the crops.' 

It was not imtil 1888, and then after a prolonged war of more 
than thirty years, generalled by the best scientists of all Europe, 
that it was finally conceded as demonstrated that k^guminous 
plants acting as hosts for lower organisms living on their roots 
are largely responsible for the maintenance of soil nitrogen, 
drawing it directly from the air to which it is returned through 



METHODS OF CULTURE 23 

the processes of decay. But centuries of practice had taught the 
Far East farmers that the culture and use of these crops are 
essential to enduring fertility, and so in each of the three coun- 
tries with which we are dealing the extensive growing of legumes 
in rotation with other crops, for the express purpose of fertilizing 
the soil, is one of their old, fixed practices. 

Just before, or immediately after, the rice crop is harvested, 
fields are often sowed to 'clover' {Astragalus sinicus) which is 
allowed to grow imtil near the next transplanting time when 
it is either turned under directly, or more often stacked along 
the canals and saturated with soft mud dipped from the bottom 
of the canal. After fermenting twenty or thirty days it is 
applied to the field. And so it is literally true that these old- 
world farmers whom we regard as ignorant, have long included 
legumes in their crop rotation, as indispensable to profitable 
agriculture. 

Time is a function of every life- process as it is of every physical, 
chemical and mental reaction. The husbandman is an industrial 
biologist and as such is compelled to shape his operations so 
as to conform with the time requirements of his crops. The 
oriental farmer is a time economizer beyond all others. He 
utilizes the first and last minute and all that are between. The 
foreigner speaks of the Chinese as people who always take their 
time, are never in a fret, and never in a hurry. This is quite true, 
and they are so for the reason that they are a people who definitely 
set their faces toward the future and lead time by the forelock. 
They have long realized that much time is required to transform 
organic matter into forms available for plant food, and, although 
they are the heaviest users in the world, the largest portion of 
this organic matter is predigested with soil or subsoil before it 
is applied to their fields. This is at an enormous cost of human 
time and labour, but it practically lengthens their growing 
season and enables them to adopt a system of multiple cropping 
which would not otherwise be possible. By planting in hills and 
rows with intertillage it is very common to see three crops 
growing upon the same field at one time, but in different stages 
of maturity - one nearly ready to harvest, one just coming up, and 
the third at the stage when it is drawing most heavily upon the 
soil. By such practice, with heavy fertilization supplemented by 



24 INTRODUCTION 

irrigation when needful, the soil is made to do full duty throughout 
the growing season. 

Further, notwithstanding the enormous acreage of rice planted 
each year, it is all in the first instance set in hills and later trans- 
planted. By this method, the farmer saves in all ways - with the 
single exception of human labour, which is the one thing they 
have in excess. By thoroughly preparing the seed-bed, fertilizing 
highly and giving the most careful attention, he is able to grow 
on one acre, during 30 to 50 days, enough plants to occupy ten 
acres, and in the meantime on the remaining nine acres other 
crops are maturing. After these are harvested the fields are 
prepared to receive the rice which by this time is ready for trans- 
planting. So that in effect this interval of time is added to the 
growing season of the rice crops. 

Silk culture is a great and, in some ways, one of the most 
remarkable industries of the Orient. Remarkable for its magni- 
tude; for having had its birthplace apparently in oldest China at 
least 2,700 years B.C.; for having grown out of the domestication 
of a wild insect of the woods; and for having lived through more 
than 4,000 years, expanding to such an extent that now as much 
as a million-dollar cargo of the product has been laid down on our 
western coast and rushed by special fast express to the east for 
the Christmas trade. 

A low estimate of China's production of raw silk would be 
120,000,000 pounds annually, and this with the output of Japan, 
Korea and a small area of southern Manchuria, would probably 
exceed 150,000,000 pounds annually, representing a total value 
of perhaps §700,000,000, equalling in value the wheat crop of 
the United States, but produced on less than one-eighth the area 
of our wheat fields. 

The cultivation of tea in China and Japan is another of the 
great industries of these nations, taking rank with that of seri- 
culture, if not above it, in the important part it plays in the 
welfare of the people. There is little reason to doubt that this 
industry has its foundation in the need of something to render 
boiled water palatable for drinking purposes. The drinking of 
boiled water is universally adopted in these countries as an 
individually available and thoroughly efficient safeguard against 
that class of deadly disease germs which so far it has been impos- 



ECONOMY AND INDUSTRY 25 

sible to exclude from the drinking water in its natural state of any 
densely peopled country. 

Judged by the success of the most thorough sanitary measures 
instituted up till now, and taking into consideration inherent 
difficulties which must increase enormously with increasing 
populations, it appears inevitable that modern methods must 
ultimately fail in sanitary efficiency and that absolute safety 
can be secured only in some manner having the equivalent effect 
of boiling drinking water, long ago adopted by the Mongolian 
races. 

In the year 1907 Japan had 124,482 acres of land in tea plan- 
tations, producing 60,877,975 pounds of cured tea. In China 
the volume annually produced is much larger than that of Japan, 
40,000,000 pounds going annually to Tibet alone from the Szech- 
wan province. The direct export to foreign countries was, in 1905, 
170,027,255 pounds, and in 190G it was 180,271,000, so that their 
annual export must exceed 200,000,000 pounds with a total 
annual output more than double this amount of cured tea. 

But above any other factor, and perhaps gTeater than all 
of them combined in contributing to the high maintenance-effici- 
ency attained in these countries, must be placed the standard 
of living to which the industrial classes have been compelled to 
adjust themselves, combined with the most rigorous economy 
which they practise along every line of effort and of living. 

Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material for 
food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made edible serves 
as food for man or domestic animals. Whatever cannot be eaten 
or worn is used for fuel. The wastes of the body, of fuel and of 
fabric are taken back to the field; before doing so they are housed 
against waste from weather, intelligently compounded and 
patiently worked at through one, three or even six months, 
in order to bring them into the most efficient form to serve as 
manure for the soil, or as feed for the crop. It seems to be a 
golden rule with these industrious people, or if not golden, then 
an inviolable one, that whenever an extra hour or day of labour 
can promise even a little larger return, it must be given, and 
nothing be permitted to cancel the obligation or defer its execu- 
tion. 



FIKST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 

WE left the United States from Seattle for Shanghai, China, 
sailing by the northern route, February 2nd, reaching 
Yokohama February 19th and Shanghai March 1st. It was 
our aim throughout the journey to keep in close contact with the 
field and crop problems and to converse personally, through 
interpreters or otherwise, with the farmers, gardeners and fruit 
growers themselves. We have taken pains in many cases to visit 
the same fields or the same region two, three or more times at 
difierent intervals during the season in order to observe different 
phases of the same cultural or fertilization methods as they 
changed or varied with the season. 

Our first near view of Japan came in the early morning of 
February 19th. The high rounded hills were clothed neither in 
the dense dark forest green of Washington and Vancouver, left 
sixteen days before, nor yet in the brilliant emerald such as 
Ireland's hills in June fling in imparalleled greeting to passengers 
surfeited with the dull grey of the rolling ocean. This lack of 
strong forest growth, and even of shrubs and heavy herbage, on 
hills covered with deep soil, was our first great surprise. 

To the southward around the point, after turning northward 
into the deep bay, similar conditions prevailed, and at ten 
o'clock we stood off Uraga where Commodore Perry anchored 
on July 8th, 1853, bearing to the Shogun President Fillmore's 
letter which opened the doors of Japan to the commerce of the 
world. As the Tosa Maru drew alongside the pier at Yokohama 
it was raining hard and an army attired after the manner of 
Robinson Crusoe, dressed as seen in Fig. 1, awaited us ready to 
carry us to the Customs house and beyond for one, two, three or 
five cents. 

Through the kindness of Captain Harrison of the Tosa Maru 
in calling an interpreter by wireless to meet the steamer, it was 
possible to utilize the entire interval of our stay in Yokohama 
to the best advantage in the fields and gardens spread over the 
eighteen miles of plain extending to Tokyo. This wonderfully 
fertile and highly tilled district was traversed by both electric 

27 



28 



FIKST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




EAINY-D AY SHOES 29 

tram and railway lines, each line running many trains and making 
frequent stops; so that almost any point could be readily and 
easily reached. 

We had left home in a memorable storm of snow, sleet and rain, 
which cut out of service telegraph and telephone lines over a 
large part of the United States; we had seen nothing on the 
journey which could suggest a warm soil and green fields, hence 
our surprise was great to find the jinricksha men with bare feet, 
and legs naked to the thighs; and greater still when we found, 
before we were outside the city limits, that our electric tram 
was running between fields and gardens green with wheat, 
barley, onions, carrots, cabbage and other vegetables. We were 
rushing through the Orient with everything outside the car so 
strange and different from home that the shock came like a 
thunderbolt out of a clear sky. 

In the car every man except myself and one other was smoking 
tobacco and that other was inhaling camphor through an ivory 
mouthpiece resembling a cigar holder closed at the end. The 
streets were muddy from the rain and everybody Japanese was 
wearing rainy-day wooden shoes, the soles carried three to four 
inches above the ground by two cross blocks. A mother, with a 
baby on her back, and a daughter of sixteen years came into the 
car. Notwithstanding her high shoes the mother had dipped one 
toe into the mud. Seated, she slipped her foot off. Without 
evident instructions the pretty black-eyed, glossy-haired, red- 
lipped lass, with cheeks made rosy, picked up the shoe, withdrew 
a piece of white tissue paper from the great pocket in her sleeve, 
deftly cleaned the otherwise spotless white cloth sock and then 
the shoe, threw the paper on the floor, looked to see that her 
fingers were not soiled, then set the shoe at her mother's foot, 
which found its place without effort or glance. 

Everything here was strange and the scenes shifted with the 
speed of the wildest dream. Now it was driving piles for the 
foundation of a bridge, A tripod of poles was erected above the 
pile and from it hung a pulley. Over the puUey passed a rope 
from the driving weight and from its end at the pulley ten cords 
extended to the ground. In a circle at the foot of the tripod 
stood ten agile Japanese women. They were the hoisting engine. 
They chanted in perfect rhythm, hauled and stepped, dropped 



30 FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 

the weight and hoisted again, making up for heavier hammer and 
higher drop by more blows per minute. WTien we reached 
Shanghai we saw the pile driver being worked from above. 
Fourteen Chinese men stood upon a raised staging, each with a 
separate cord passing direct from the hand to the weight below. A 
concerted, half-musical chant, modulated to relieve monotony, 
kept all hands together. What did the operation of this machine 
cost? Thirteen cents, gold, per man per day, which covered fuel 
and lubricant, both automatically served. Two additional men 
managed the piles, two directed the hammer, eighteen manned 
the outfit. Two dollars and thirty-four cents per day covered 
fuel, superintendence and repairs. There was almost no capital 
invested in machinery. Men were plentiful. Rice was the fuel, 
cooked without salt, boiled stiff, reinforced with a bit of pork or 
fish, appetized with salted cabbage or turnip, and perhaps two or 
three of forty and more other vegetable relishes. Are these men 
strong and happy? They certainly are strong. They are steadily 
increasing their millions, and as one stood and watched them 
at their work their faces were often wreathed in smiles and wore 
what seemed to be a look of satisfaction and contentment. 

Among the most common early morning sights on the journey 
from Yokohama to Tokyo were the loads of night soil carried 
on the shoulders of men and on the backs of animals, but most 
commonly on strong carts drawn by men. Each cart carried from 
six to ten tightly covered wooden containers holding forty, sixty 
or more pounds each. Strange as it may seem, there are not to-day, 
and apparently never have been, even in the largest and oldest 
cities of Japan, China or Korea, anything corresponding to the 
hydraulic systems of sewage disposal used now by western nations. 
Provision is made for the removal of storm waters, but when I 
asked my interpreter if it was not the custom of the city during 
the winter months to discharge its night soil into the sea, as a 
quicker and cheaper mode of disposal, his reply came quick and 
sharp, 'No, that would be waste. We throw nothing away. It is 
worth too much money.' In such public places as railway stations 
provision is made for saving, not for wasting, and even along the 
country roads screens invite the traveller to stop, primarily 'for 
profit to the owner rather than for personal convenience. 

Between Yokohama and Tokyo, along the electric car line 



EDIBLE SEAWEED 



31 




Fig. 2. - Method of drying seaweed used for food. The small black squares on the 
larger light ones are the seaweed. Skewers pin the squares of matting against 
the long screens, six of which are shown in parallel series. 




Fio. 3. - Section of shallow sea bottom planted with bru.shwood on which the edible 
seaweeds attach themselves and grow. 



32 FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 

and not far distant from the seashore, there were to be seen in 
February very many long, fence-high screens built of rice straw, 
closely tied together and supported on bamboo poles carried upon 
posts of wood set in the ground. They extended east and west, 
and were strongly inclined towards the north. These screens, set 
in parallel series of five to ten or more in number and several 
himdred feet long, were used for the purpose of drying varieties of 
delicate seaweed, spread out in the manner shown in Fig. 2. 

The seaweed is first spread upon separate 10 by 12 inch straw 
mats, forming a thin layer 7 by 8 inches. These mats are held by 
means of wooden skewers forced through the body of the screen, 
exposing the seaweed to the direct sunshine. When dry the 
rectangles of seaweed are piled in bundles an inch thick, cut in 
two, so as to form packages 4 by 7 inches. The packages are then 
neatly tied together and exposed for sale as soup stock and for 
other purposes. 

To obtain this seaweed from the ocean, small shrubs and the 
limbs of trees are set up in the bottom of shallow water (Fig. 3). 
To these limbs the seaweeds become attached, grow to maturity 
and are then gathered by hand. By this method of culture large 
amounts of important food-stuff are grown for the support of the 
people on areas otherwise wholly unproductive. 

AJiother rural feature, best shown by photograph taken in 
February, is the method of training pear orchards in Japan. Their 
limbs are tied down upon horizontal overhead trellises at such a 
height that a man can readily walk erect underneath and easily 
reach the fruit with the hand while standing upon the ground. 
Pear orchards thus form arbours of greater or less size, the trees 
being set in quincunx order about 12 feet apart in and between 
the rows. Bamboo poles are used overhead, carried on posts of 
the same material 1-5 to 2-5 inches in diameter, to which they are 
tied (Fig. 4). 

The limbs of the pear trees are trained strictly in one plane. 
They are tied down and those not desired are pruned out. As a 
result the ground beneath is completely shaded and every pear 
is within reach. The accessibility of the fruit is a great convenience 
when it becomes necessary to tie paper bags over every pear in 
order to protect it from insects (Figs. 5 and 6). The orchard ground 
is kept free from weeds and not infrequently covered with a layer 




Fig. 4. - Looking down upon an extensive pear orchard, the limbs of which are 
trained horizontally, forming an arbour completely shading the ground when 
in leaf, and placing all of the fruit within reach of the hand from beneath. 




Fig. 5. - Pear trees at Akashi Experiment Station, Japan. Pears protected by 
paper bags. Special form of pruning advised by Prof. Ono, standing on the left, 
with Prof. Tokito. The trees branch below rather than at the level of the trollis. 

33 



34 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 



of rice or other straw, which is extensively used in Japan as a, 
ground cover with various crops. When so used it is carefully laid 
in handfuls, the straws being kept parallel as when harvested. 
To the traveller coming from a country of 160-acre farms, with 
roads four rods wide; of cities with broad streets and residences, 
with green lawns and ample back yards; a country too where the 




Fig. 6. 



Low -braucl ling pear orchard with ])(.'ard protected by paper bags, at 
Akashi Experiment Station, Japan. 



cemeteries are large and beautiful parks, the contrast presented 
by the over-crowding which he notices in the very first days of 
travel in these old countries forces itself upon his attention. The 
cities are over-crowded with houses and shops, and these with 
people and wares; the country is over-crowded with fields and the 
fields with crops; while in Japan the over-crowding is greatest 
of all in the cemeteries, where the gravestones almost touch 
each other; and in the surrounding country dwellings, gardens 
or rice fields contest the tiny allotted areas too closely to leave 
even footpaths between. 



A CROWDED LAND 



35 




36 



FIRST L I M P S E S OF JAPAN 




CKOWDING OF RURAL SECTIONS 37 

Unless recently modified through foreign influence, the streets 
of villages and cities are narrow, as seen in Fig. 7, where the street, 
narrow as it is, is broader than most. This is a village in the 
Hakone district on a beautiful lake of the same name, where 
stands an Imperial summer palace, seen near the centre of the 
view on a hill across the lake. The roofs of the houses here are 
typical of the neat careful thatching with rice straw, very gener- 
ally adopted in place of tile for the country villages. 

In the canalized regions of China the country villages crowd 
both banks of a canal, as is the case in Fig. 8. Here, too, there is 
often a single street, very narrow, very crowded and very busy. 
Stone steps lead from the houses down into the water where 
clothing, vegetables, rice and what not are conveniently washed. 
In this particular village two rows of houses stand on one side of 
the canal separated by a very narrow street, and a single row on 
the other. Between the bridge, where the camera was exposed, 
and another bridge barely discernible in the background, a third 
of a mile distant, we counted upon one side, walking along the 
narrow street, 80 houses, each with its family, usually of three 
generations and often of four. Thus in the narrow strip, 154 feet 
broad, including 16 feet of street and 30 feet of canal, with its 
three lines of houses, lived no less than 240 families and more than 
1,200 and probably nearer 2,000 people. 

When we turn to the crowding of fields in the country nothing 
except seeing can reveal the fact so forcibly as the landscapes 
shown in Figs, 9, 10 and 11, one in Japan, one in Korea, and one 
in China. The latter is a scene not far from Nanking, looking 
from the hills across the fields to the broad Yangtse-kiang, barely 
discernible as a band of light along the horizon. 

The average area of the rice field in Japan is less than 5 square 
rods and that of her upland fields only about 20. In the case of 
the rice fields the small size is necessitated partly by the require- 
ment of holding water on the sloping sides of the valley (Fig. 9). 
These small areas do not represent the amount of land worked 
by one family, the average for Japan being more nearly 2-5 acres. 
But the lands worked by one family are seldom contiguous, they 
may even be widely scattered and very often rented. 

The people generally live in villages, going often considerable 
distances to their work. Recognizing the great disadvantage of 



38 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




KOKEAN EICE FIELDS 



39 




40 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




ROADS AND READJUSTED FIELDS 41 

scattered holdings broken into such small areas, the Japanese 
Government has passed laws for the adjustment of farm lands, 
which have been in force since 1900. They provide for the 
exchange of lands; for changing boundaries; for changing or 
abolishing roads, embankments, ridges or canals and for altera- 
tions in irrigation and drainage which would ensure that there 
would be larger areas and that the channels and roads would be 
straightened and made less numerous and less wasteful of time, 
labour and land. Up to 1907 Japan had issued permits for the 
readjustment of over 240,000 acres, and Fig. 12 is a landscape 
in one of these readjusted districts. To provide capable experts 
for planning and supervising these changes, the Government in 
1905 entrusted the training of men to the higher agricultural 
school belonging to the Dai Nippon Agricultural Association, and 
since 190G the Agricultural College and the Kogyokusha have 
undertaken the same task. Now there are men sufficient to push 
the work as rapidly as desired. 

It may be remembered, too, as showing how, along other 
fundamental lines, Japan is taking effective steps to improve the 
condition of her people, that she already has her Imperial high- 
ways extending from one province to another; her prefectural 
roads which connect the cities and villages within the prefecture; 
and those which serve the farms and villages. Each of the three 
systems of roads is maintained by a specific tax levied for the 
purpose which is expended under proper supervision, a designated 
section of road being kept in repair through the year by a specially 
appointed crew, as is the practice in railroad maintenance. The 
result is, Japan has roads maintained in excellent condition, 
always narrow, sacrificing the minimum of land, and everywhere 
without fences. 

That the fields are crowded with crops and all available land 
is made to do full duty is evident in Fig. 13, where even the narrow 
dividing ridges which retain the water are bearing a heavy 
crop of soy beans; and where may be seen a narrow pear orchard 
standing on the very slightest rise of ground, not a foot above the 
water. 

How closely the groimd itself may be crowded with plants 
is seen in Fig. 14, where a young peach orchard, whose tree-tops 
were 6 feet through, planted in rows 22 feet apart, had also 



42 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




RICE, BEANS AND PEARS 



43 



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Jill:::: ■ j: 




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II l, J,. . .^ 


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'\ *>■ ■.(■••, 
■ ' 'W -' 

. ', 1 



W)o 



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as 


o 






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73 tc 




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£.2 



44 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




CEO W DING OF CROPS 45 

ten rows of cabbage, two rows of large windsor beans and a row 
of garden peas. Thirteen rows of vegetables in 22 feet, all luxuri- 
ant and strong! Note the judgment shown in placing the tallest 
plants, needing the most sun, in the centre between the trees. 

But these old-world people, accustomed to crowding and to 
being crowded, and long ago capable of making four blades of 
grass grow where Nature grew but one, have also learned how 
to double the acreage where a crop needs more elbow room than 
it does standing room, as seen in Fig. 15. This man's garden had 
an area of but 63 by 68 feet, and two square rods of this was held 
sacred to the family grave mound. Yet his statement of yields, 
number of crops and prices made his earning $100 a year on less 
than one-tenth of an acre. His crop of cuciunbers on less than -06 
of an acre would bring him $20. He had already sold $5 worth 
of greens and a second crop would follow the cucumbers. He had 
just irrigated his garden from an adjoining canal, using a foot- 
power pump, and stated that until it rained he would repeat the 
watering once a week. 

On February 21st the Tosa Maru left Yokohama for Kobe at 
schedule time. On reaching Kobe we transferred to the Yama- 
gitchi Maru, which sailed the following morning, to shorten the 
time of reaching Shanghai. This left but an afternoon for a trip 
into the country between Kobe and Osaka, where we found, if 
possible, even higher and more intensive culture practices than 
on the Tokyo plain, there being less land not carrying a winter 
crop. Fig. 17 shows how closely the crops crowd the houses and 
shops. Here were many cement-lined cisterns or sheltered 
reservoirs for collecting manures and preparing fertilizers, and 
the appearance of both soil and crops showed in a marked manner 
to what advantage. We passed a garden of nearly an acre entirely 
devoted to English violets just coming into full bloom. They were 
grown in long parallel east and west beds about 3 feet wide. On 
the north edge of each bed was erected a rice-straw screen 4 feet 
high which inclined to the south, overhanging the bed at an angle 
of some thirty-five degrees, thus forming a sort of oven-tent 
which reflected the sun, broke the force of the wind and checked 
the loss of heat absorbed by the soil. 

The voyage from Kobe to Moji was made between 10 in the 
morning, February 24th, and 5.30 p.m. of February 25th, over a 



46 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




WINTER DRESS 



47 




Fio. 16. - Aged Chinese farmer in winter dress. 



48 



FIRST G L I 1\I P 8 E S OF JAPAN 




TEERACED GARDENS 49 

quiet sea. We left Moji again in the early morning, and late in the 
evening of the same day entered the beautiful harbour of Naga- 
saki, aU on board waiting until morning for a launch to go ashore. 
We were to sail again at noon, so available time for observation 
was short and we set out in a ricksha at once for our first near 
view of terraced gardening on the steep hillsides in Japan. Both 
going and returning our course led through streets paved with 
long, thick and narrow stone blocks, with deep open gutters on 
one or both sides close to the houses, into which waste water was 
emptied and through which the storm waters found their way to 
the sea. Few of these streets were more than 12 feet wide, and 
close watching, with much dodging, was required to make our 
way through them. Here, too, the night soil of the city was being 
removed in closed receptacles on the shoulders of men, on the 
backs of horses and oxen and on carts drawn by either. Men and 
women were hurrying along with baskets of vegetables as illus- 
trated in Fig. 18, some with fresh cabbage, some with high stacks 
of crisp lettuce, some with monstrous white radishes or turnips, 
and others with bundles of onions, all coming down from the 
terraced gardens to the markets. We passed loads of green 
bamboo poles just cut, 3 inches in diameter at the butt and 20 
feet long, drawn on carts. Both men and women were carrying 
young children, and older children were playing and singing in 
the street. Many old women, some feeble looking, moved, loaded, 
through the throng, while homely little dogs, an occasional lean 
cat, and hens and roosters scurried across the street from one shop 
to another. -*>.^,, 

We finally reached one of the terraced hillsides which rise 500 
to 1,000 feet above the harbour with sides so steep that gardens 
have a width of seldom more than 20 to 30 feet and often less, 
while the front of each terrace is generally a stone wall, sometimes 
12, often more than 6, but most commonly 4 and 5 feet high. 
One of these hillside slopes is seen in Fig. 19. The terraced 
gardens are both short and narrow and most of them bounded 
by stone walls on three sides, the two end walls sloping down the 
hill so as to form footpaths with occasional steps. 

Each terrace sloped slightly down the hill and had a low ridge 
along the front. Around its entire border a narrow drain or 
furrow was arranged to collect surface water and direct it into 



50 



FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 




TERRACED GARDENS 



51 




52 FIRST GLIMPSES OF JAPAN 

drainage channels or into a catch basin where it might be put 
back on the garden or be used in preparing liquid fertilizer. At 
one corner of many of these small terraced gardens were cement- 
lined pits, used as catch basins for water, as receptacles for 
liquid manure, or as places in which to prepare compost. Far up 
the steep paths, along either side, we saw many piles of stable 
manure awaiting application, all of which had been brought up 
the slopes in baskets on bamboo poles, carried on the shoulders of 
men and women. 



II 

GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 

THE launch had returned the passengers to the steamer at 
11.30; the captain was on the bridge; prompt to the 
minute, at the call 'Hoist away' the signal went below and the 
Yamaguchi's whistle filled the harbour and overflowed the hills. 
At 12 noon we were leaving Nagasaki, now a city of 153,000 
and the western doorway of a nation of 51 millions of people, 
but of little importance before the sixteenth century, when it 
became the chief mart of Portuguese trade. We were to pass 
the Koreans on our right and enter the portals of a third nation 
of 400 millions. We had left a country which had added 
85 millions to its population in one hundred years and which 
still has twenty acres for each man, woman and child, to pass 
through one which has but one and a half acres per cafila, 
and were going to another whose allotment of acres, good and 
bad, is less than 2-4. We had come from a country in which 
three generations had exhausted strong virgin fields, and 
were approaching others still fertile after thirty centuries 
of cropping. On January 30th we crossed the head waters 
of the Mississippi-Missouri, 4,000 miles from its mouth ; and 
on March 1st were in the mouth of the Yangtse River, whose 
waters are gathered from a basin in which dwell 200 millions of 
people. 

The Yamaguchi reached Woosung in the night and anchored 
to await morning and tide before ascending the Hwangpoo, 
believed by some geographers to be the middle of three earlier 
delta arms of the Yangtse-kiang, the southern arm entering the 
sea at Hangchow 120 miles further south, the third being the 
present stream. As we wound through this great delta plain 
toward Shanghai, the city of foreign concessions to all nation- 
alities, the first striking feature was the 'graves of the fathers,' 
of 'the ancestors.' At first the numerous grass-covered hillocks 
dotting the plain seemed to be stacks of grain or straw; then 
came the query whether they might not be huge compost heaps 
awaiting distribution in the fields, but as the river brought us 
nearer to them we seemed to be moving through a land of ancient 

53 



54 



GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 



mound builders. Fig. 20 shows, in its upper section, their appear- 
ance as seen in the distance. 

As the journey led on among the fields, so large were the 
mounds, often 10 to 12 feet high and 20 or more feet at the 
base; so grass-covered and apparently neglected; so numer- 
ous and so irregularly scattered, without apparent regard for 
fields, that when we were told that they were graves we could 
not give credence to the statement. Before the city was reached, 
however, we saw places where, by the shifting of the channel, 




Fig. 20. - Views of grave lands in the delta region of the Yangtse-kiang, China. 



the river had cut into some of these mounds, exposing brick 
vaults. Some were so low as to be under water part of the 
time, and we wonder if the fact does not also record a slow sub- 
sidence of the delta plain under the ever-increasing load of 
river silt. 

A closer view of the graves is given in the lower section of 
Fig. 20, where they are seen not only to occupy large areas of 
valuable land but to be much in the way of agricultural opera- 
tions. A still closer view of other groups, with a farm village in 
the background, is shown in the middle section of the same 
illustration. On the right may be seen a line of six graves sur- 



SPACE GIVEN TO GRAVES 



55 



mounting a common lower base which is a type of the larger 
and higher ones so suggestive of buildings seen in the horizon of 
the upper section. 

Everywhere we went in China, especially in the neighbourhood 
of old and large cities, the proportion of grave land to culti- 
vated fields is very large. In the vicinity of Canton Christian 
College, on Honam island, more than 50 per cent of the land 
was given over to graves, and in many places they were so close 




Fig. 21. - Goats pasturing on grave lands near Shanghai, and graves in hilly 
lands near Canton. 

that one could step from one to another. They are on the higher 
and drier lands, the cultivated areas occupying ravines and the 
lower levels to which water may be more easily applied and which 
are the most productive. Hilly lands not so readily cultivated, 
and especially if within reach of cities, are largely so used. These 
grave lands are not altogether unproductive, for they are generally 
overgrown with herbage of one kind or another and used as 
pastures for geese, sheep, goats and cattle, and it is not at all 
uncommon, when riding along a canal, to see a huge water 



56 



GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 



buffalo projected against the sky from the summit of one of the 
largest and highest grave mounds within reach. If the herbage is 
not fed off by animals it is usually cut for feed, for fuel, for green 
manure or for use in the production af compost to enrich the soil. 




Fig. 22. - Cluster of graves in brick vaults, lower section; and isolated grave in 
garden, with two large grave mounds, upper section. 

Caskets may be placed directly upon the surface of a field, 
encased in brick vaults with tile roofs, forming such clusters as 
was seen on the bank of the Grand Canal in Chekiang province, 
represented in the lower section of Fig. 22, or they may stand 



GRAVES IN SHANTUNG AND CHIHLI 57 

singly in the midst of a garden, as in the upper section of the 
same figure; in a paddy field entirely surrounded by water parts 
of the year, and indeed in almost any unexpected place. In 
Shanghai in 1898, 2,763 exposed coffined corpses were removed 
outside the International Settlement or buried by the authorities. 

Further north, in the Shantung province, where the dry season 
is more prolonged and where a severe drought had made grass 
short, the grave lands had become nearly naked soil, as seen in 
Fig. 23, where a Shantung farmer had just dug a temporary well 
to irrigate his little field of barley. Within the range of the 
camera, as held to take this view, more than forty grave mounds 
besides the seven near by, are near enough to be fixed on the 
negative and be discernible under a glass, indicating what exten- 
sive areas of land, in the aggregate, are given over to graves. 

Still further north, in Chihli, a like story is told in, if possible, 
more emphatic manner and fully vouched for in the next illustra- 
tion. Fig. 24, which shows a typical family group, to be observed 
in so many places between Taku and Tientsin and beyond toward 
Peking. As we entered the mouth of the Pei-ho for Tientsin, far 
away to the vanishing horizon there stretched an almost naked 
plain except for the vast numbers of these 'graves of the 
fathers,' so strange, so naked, so regular in form and so numer- 
ous that more than an hour of our journey had passed before we 
realized that they were graves and that the country here was 
perhaps more densely peopled with the dead than with the liv- 
ing. In so many places there was the huge father grave, often 
capped with what in the distance suggested a chimney, and the 
many associated smaller ones, that it was difficult to realize in 
passing what they were. 

It is a common custom, even if the residence has been per- 
manently changed to some distant province, to take the bodies 
back for interment with the family group; and it is this custom 
which leads to the practice of choosing a temporary location for 
the body, waiting for a favourable opportunity to remove it. This 
is the reason often for the isolated coffin so frequently seen under 
a simple thatch of rice straw. 

It is the custom periodically to restore the mounds, maintaining 
their height and size, as is seen in the next two illustrations, and 
to decorate them once in the year'with flying streamers of coloured 



58 



GKAVE LANDS OF CHINA 




73 




EXPENSE OF BURIALS 59 

paper, the remnants of which may be seen in both Figs. 25 and 
26, set there as tokens that the paper money has been burned 
upon them and its essence sent up in the smoke for the mainten- 
ance of the spirits of the departed. We have our memorial day; 
they have for centuries observed theirs with religious fidelity. 

The usual expense of a burial among the working people is said 
to be $100, Mexican, an enormous burden when the day's wage or 
the yearly earning of the family is considered together with the 
yearly expense of the ancestor worship. How such voluntary 
burdens are assumed by people under such circumstances is hard 
to understand. Missionaries assert it is due to fear of evil conse- 
quences in this life and of punishment and neglect in the here- 
after. Is it not far more likely that such is the price these people 
are willing to pay for a good name among the living and because 
of their deep and lasting affection for the departed? Nor does it 
seem at all strange that a kindly, warm-hearted people with 
strong filial reverence should have reached, early in their long 
history, a belief in one spirit of the departed which hovers about 
the home, one which hovers about the grave, and a third which 
wanders abroad, for surely there are associations with each of 
these conditions which must long and forcefully awaken memories 
of those who are gone. If this view is possible, may not such 
ancestral worship be an index of qualities of character strongly 
fixed and of the highest worth which, when improvements come 
that may relieve the heavy burdens now carried, will only shine 
more brightly and count more for right living as well as for 
comfort? 

Even in our own case it will hardly be maintained that our 
burial customs have reached their best and final solution, for in 
all civilized nations they are unnecessarily expensive and far too 
cumbersome. It is only necessary mentally to add the accumula- 
tion of a few centuries to our cemeteries to realize how impossible 
our practice must become. Clearly there is here a very important 
need for betterment which all nationalities should seek. 

When the steamer anchored at Shanghai the day was pleasant 
and the raincoats which greeted us in Yokohama were not in 
evidence, but the numbers who had met the steamer in the hope 
of an opportunity for earning a trifle were far greater and in many 
ways in strong contrast with the Japanese. We were surprised to 



60 



GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 




EXPENSE OF BURIALS 



61 




62 



GRAVE LANDS OF CHINA 



find the men of so large a stature, much above the Chinese usually 
seen in the United States. They were fully the equal of large 
Americans in frame, but without surplus flesh, though few 
appeared underfed. To realize that these are strong, hardy men 
it was only necessary to watch them in pairs carrying on their 




Fig. 27. - Men freighters going inland with hiads of matches. 

shoulders bales of cotton suspended from strong bamboo poles; 
while the heavy loads they transport on wheelbarrows through 
the country over long distances, as seen in Fig. 27, prove their 
great endurance. This same type of vehicle is one of the common 
means of transporting people, especially women, and four, six 
and even eight may be seen riding together, propelled by a single 
wheelbarrow man. 



Ill 

TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 

WE had come to these countries to learn how the old-world 
farmers had been able to provide materials for food and 
clothing on such small areas for so many millions, at so low a 
price, during so many centuries, and were anxious to see them on 
the soil and among the crops. The sun was still south of the 
equator, coming north only about twelve miles per day, so, to 
save time, we booked on the next steamer for Hong-Kong to 
meet spring at Canton, beyond the Tropic of Cancer, 600 miles 
farther south, and return with her. 

On the morning of March 4th the Tosa Mam steamed out into 
the Yangtse River, already flowing w^ith the increased speed of 
ebb tide. The pilots were on the bridge to guide her course along 
the narrow south channel through waters seemingly as brown and 
turbid as the Potomac after a rain. It was at some distance 
beyond Gutzlaii Island that we crossed the front of the out-going 
tide, showing in a sharp line of contrast across the course of the 
ship. During long ages this stream of mighty volume has been 
loading itself in far-away Tibet, without dredge, barge, fuel 
or human effort, with unused, and there unusable, soils, bringing 
them down from inaccessible heights a distance of 2,000 or 3,000 
miles, building up with them, from the bottom of the sea, at the 
gateways of commerce, miles upon miles of the world's most 
fertile fields and gardens. To-day on this river, winding through 
600 miles of the most highly cultivated fields, laid out on river- 
built plains, go large ocean steamers to the city of Hankow- 
Wuchang-Hanyang, where 1,770,000 people live and trade within 
a radius of less than four miles; while smaller steamers push on 
1,000 miles beyond and are then not more than 130 feet above 
sea level. 

Even now, with the aid of current, tide and man, these brown 
turbid waters are rapidly adding fertile delta plains for new 
homes. During the last twenty-five years Chungming Island has 
grown in length some 1,800 feet per year and to-day 1,000,000 
people are living and growing rice, wheat, cotton and sweet 
potatoes on 270 square miles of fertile plain where 500 years ago 

63 



64 TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 

were only submerged river sands and silt. Here 3,700 people 
per square mile have acquired homes. 

Sunday morning, March 7th, found us entering the long, narrow 
and beautiful harbour of Hong-Kong. Here, lying at anchor in the 
10 square miles of water, were five battleships, several large ocean 
steamers, many coastwise vessels and a multitude of smaller 
craft whose yearly tonnage is twenty to thirty millions. But the 
harbour lies in the track of the terrible East Indian typhoon and, 
although sheltered on the north shore of a high island, one of these 
storms recently sunk nine vessels, sent twenty-three ashore, 
seriously damaged twenty-one others, wrought great destruction 
among the smaller craft and destroyed over 1,000 lives. Such was 
the destruction wrought by the September storm of 1906. 

Our steamer did not go to dock, but the Nippon Yusen Kaisha's 
launch transferred us to a city much resembling Seattle in possess- 
ing a scant footing between a long sea front and high steep 
mountain slopes behind. Here cliffs too steep to climb rise from 
the very sidewalk and are covered with a profusion of ferns, small 
bamboo, palms, vines, flowering shrubs, all interspersed with pine 
and great banyan trees that do so much toward adding the beauty 
of northern landscapes to that of tropical regions. 

Hong-Kong Island is some 1 1 miles long and 2 to 5 miles wide, 
while the peak carrying the signal staff rises 1,825 feet above the 
streets. The Peak tramway, on which, hanging from opposite 
ends of a strong cable, one car rises up the slope and another 
descends every fifteen to twenty minutes, affords communication 
between business houses below and homes in beautiful surround- 
ings and a tempered climate above. Extending along the slopes of 
the mountains, above the city, are excellent roads, carefully graded, 
provided with concrete gutters and bridges, along which one may 
travel on foot, on horseback, by ricksha or sedan chair. Over one 
of these we ascended along one side of Happy Valley, around its 
head and down the other side. Only occasionally could we catch 
glimpses of the summit through the lifting fog, but looking down, 
across the city and beyond the harbour with its shipping, and 
up and down the many ravines, the views are among the choicest 
ever made accessible to the residents of any city. It was the begin- 
ning of the migratory season for birds, and trees and shrubbery 
thronged with many species. 



WORKERS IN HONG-KONG 



65 



Women were seen engaged in heavy manual labour with the 
men, carrying crushed rock and sand, for concrete and macadam 
work, up the steep street slopes long distances from the dock. 
Like the men, they were of smaller stature than those seen at 
Shanghai and clo.sely resemble the Chinese in the United States. 










^•^^ii*^ 



Fig. 28. - Usual inetliod of sawing lumber in China. 



Both sexes are agile, wiry and strong. Here we first saw lumber- 
sawing in the open streets after the manner shown in Fig. 28, 
where wide boards were being cut from camphor logs. In the 
damp, already warm weather the men were stripped to the waist, 
their limbs bare to above the knee, and each carried a large towel 
for wiping away the profuse perspiration. 

F.F.C. ^ 



66 



TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 



It was here, too, that we first met the remarkable staging for 
the erection of bviildings of four and six stories, set up without 
saw, hammer or nail; without injury to or waste of lumber and with 
the minimum of labour in construction and removal. Poles and 
bamboo stems were lashed together with overlapping ends, per- 
mitting any interval or height to be secured without cutting or 
nailing, and admitting of ready removal with absolutely no waste, 



'■■^ '^.. .Jr.'----' ■ 


^ 




m^ »"C3~/it^ ■•^^^^y^^PiiB^^^^^^^^^^^J^^B'^^^MP5*i9r W^jM 


^^yp^^Bf ^■^iMpBK^HB 



Fig. 29. - Slaluar^ lluial pitct^ iii 



tlori,st".s garden, Happy Valley, Hong-K<jng, 
China. 



all parts being capable of repeated use unless it be some of the 
materials employed in tying members. Up inclined stairways, 
from staging to staging, in the erection of six-story granite build- 
ings, mortar was being carried in baskets swinging from bamboo 
poles on the shoulders of men and women, as the cheapest hoists 
available. 

Industrial China, Korea and Japan do not observe our weekly 
day of rest, and during our walk around Happy Valley on Sunday 
afternoon, looking down upon its terraced gardens and tiny 



GARDEN FERTILIZATION 67 

fields, we saw men and women busy fitting the soil for new crops, 
gathering vegetables for market, feeding plants with liquid 
manure and even irrigating certain crops, notwithstanding the 
damp, foggy, showery weather. Turning the head of the valley, 
attention was drawn to a walled enclosure, and a detour down the 
slope brought us to a florist's garden within which were rows of 
large potted foliage plants of semi-shrubbery habit, seen in Fig. 
29, trained in the form of life-size human figures with limbs, arms 
and trunk provided with highly glazed and coloured porcelain 
feet, hands and head. These, with many other potted plants and 
trees, including dwarf varieties, are grown under out-door lattice 
shelters in different parts of China, for sale to the wealthy Chinese 
families. 

How thorough is the tillage, how efficient and painstaking the 
garden fitting, and how closely the ground is crowded to its 
utmost limit of producing power are indicated in Fig. 30; and 
when one stops and studies the detail in such gardens he expects 
in its executor an orderly, careful, frugal and industrious man, 
deriving not a little satisfaction from his creations however arduous 
his task or prolonged his day. Many were the times, during our 
walks in the fields and gardens among these old, much misunder- 
stood, misrepresented and undervalued people, when the bond 
of common interest was felt between us, and we recognized the 
representative of a race which, with fortitude and rare wisdom, has 
kept alive the seeds of manhood and nourished them into such 
sturdy stock. 

Not only are these people extremely careful and painstaking in 
fittmg their fields and gardens to receive the crop, but they are 
even more scrupulous in their care to make everything that can 
possibly do so serve as fertilizer for the soil, or food for the crop. 
Expense is incurred to provide such receptacles as are seen in 
Fig. 31 for receiving not only the night soil of the home and that 
which may be bought or otherwise procured, but in which may 
be stored any fluid which can serve as plant food. On the right 
of these earthenware jars is a pile of ashes and another of manure. 
All such materials are saved and used in the most advantageous 
ways to enrich the soil or to nourish the plants in their growth. 

Generally the liquid manures must be diluted with water to a 
greater or less extent before they are 'fed,' as the Chinese say, to 



08 



TO IIONG-KONG AND CANTON 




WATER SUPPLY FOR GARDENS 



69 



their plants, hence there is need of an abundant and convenient 
water supply. One of these is seen in Fig. 32, where the Chinaman 
has adopted the modern galvanized iron pipe to bring water 
from the mountain slope of Happy Valley to his garden. By the 
side of this tank are the covered pails in which the night soil was 
brought, perhaps more than a mile, to be first diluted and then 
applied. But the more general method for supplying water is that 




Fig. 31. 



Receptacles for collecting liquid manure, and at their right a pile of 
ashes and a pile of stable manure for fertilizing the garden. 



of leading it along the ground in channels or ditches to a small 
reservoir in one corner of a terraced field or garden, as seen in 
Fig. 33, where it is held and the surplus led down from terrace to 
terrace, giving each its permanent supply. At the upper right 
corner of the engraving may be seen two manure receptacles and 
a third near the reservoir. The plants on the lower terrace are 
watercress and those above the same. At this time of the year, on 
the terraced gardens of Happy Valley, this is one of the crops 
most extensively grown. 



70 



TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 




WATER FOR TERRACED GARDENS 71 




72 TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 

Walking among these gardens and isolated homes, we passed 
a pig pen provided with a smooth, well-laid stone floor that had 
just been washed scrupulously clean, like the floor of a house. 
While I was not able to learn other facts regarding this case, I 
have little doubt that the washings from this floor had been care- 
fully collected and taken to some receptacle to serve as a plant food. 

Looking back as we left Hong-Kong for Canton on the cloudy 
evening of March 8th, the view was wonderfully beautiful. We 
were drawing away from three cities, one, electric-lighted Hong- 
Kong rising up the steep slopes, suggesting a section of sky set 
with a vast array of stars of all magnitudes up to triple Jupiters; 
another, old and new Kowloon on the opposite side of the har- 
bour; and between these two, separated from either shore by wide 
reaches of wholly unoccupied water, lay the third, a mid-strait 
city of sampans, junks and coastwise craft of many kinds segre- 
gated, in obedience to police regulation, into blocks and streets 
with each setting sun, but only to scatter again with the coming 
morn. At night, after a fixed hour, no one is permitted to leave 
shore and cross the vacant water strip except from certain piers 
and with the permission of the police, who take the number of the 
sampan and the names of its occupants. Over the harbour three 
large searchlights were sweeping and it was curious to see the 
junks and other craft suddenly burst into full blazes of light, like 
so many monstrous fireflies, to disappear and reappear as the 
lights came and went. These measures have been taken to lessen 
the number of cases of foul play in which people have left the 
wharves at night for some vessel in the strait, never to be heard of 
again. 

The distance by water to Canton is some 90 miles, and early in 
the morning our steamer dropped anchor oft' the foreign settlement 
of Shameen. Through the kindness of Consul-General Amos P. 
Wilder in sending a telegram to the Canton Christian College, their 
little steam-launch met the boat and took us directly to the 
home of the college on Honam Island. The college lies in the great 
delta south of the city where sediments brought by the Si-kiang, 
Pei-kiang, and Tung-kiang - west, north and east rivers - through 
long centuries have been building up the richest of' land. This 
reclaimed land is appropriated as fast as it is formed, and made to 
bring forth materials for food, fuel and raiment in great quantities. 



WINTER GARDENING 73 

It was on Honam Island that we walked first among the grave 
lands and came to know them as such, for Canton Christian Col- 
lege stands in the midst of graves which, although very old, are 
not permitted to be disturbed. Cattle were grazing and with them 
some 250 of the brown Chinese geese, two-thirds grown, were 
gleaning their entire living from the grave lands and adjacent 
water. A mature goose sells in Canton for SI '20, Mexican, or less 




Fio. 34. - Looking across fields which have borne two crops of rice, now ridged 
for leeks and other vegetables as a winter crop. 

than 52 cents, gold, but even then how can the labourer whose 
day's wage is but 10 or 15 cents afford one for his family? 

Here, too, we saw the Chinese persistent, never-ending industry 
in keeping their land, their sunshine, their rain, and themselves 
too, busy in producing something needful. Fields which had 
matured two crops of rice during the long summer, had been 
laboriously, and largely by hand labour, thrown into strong ridges 
as seen in Fig. 34, to permit still a third winter crop of some 
vegetable to be taken from the land. 



74 



TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 



But this intensive, continuous cropping of the land spells soil 
exhaustion and creates demands for maintenance and restoration 
of available plant food or the adding of large quantities of some- 
thing quickly convertible into it. Here, therefore, in the fields on 
Honani Island, as in the Happy Valley, there was abundant 
evidence of the most careful attention and laborious effort 
devoted to plant feeding. The boat standing in the canal in Fig. 
35 had come from Canton in the early morning with two tons of 
human manure and men were busy applying it, in diluted form, 




Fig. 35. - Boat load of human waste in canal on Honam Island, brought from 
Canton and being used in feeding winter vegetables. 



to beds of leeks at the rate of 16,000 gallons per acre, all carried 
on the shoulders in pairs of pails like those which stand in the 
foreground. The material is applied with long-handled dippers 
holding a gallon, the men wading, with bare feet and trousers 
rolled up above the knees, in the water of the furrows between 
the beds. 

The above is one of the ways of 'feeding the crops' adopted by 
t^hese agriculturists. They have other methods of 'manuring the 
soil.' One of these we first met on Honam Island. Large amounts 
of canal mud are here collected in boats, brought to the fields to 
be treated and there left to drain and dry before distributing. 



ABOUT CANTON 75 

Both the material used to feed the crop and that used lor manur- 
ing the land are waste products, hindrances to the industry of 
the region, but the Chinese make them do essential duty in 
maintaining its life. Human waste must be disposed of. We turn 
it into the sea. They return it to the soil. Doing so, they save for 
plant feeding more than a ton of phosphorus (2,712 pounds) and 
more than two tons of potassium (4,488 pounds) per day for each 
million of adult population. The mud collects in their canals 
and obstructs movement. They must be kept open. The mud is 
highly charged with organic matter and adds humus to the soil 
when applied to the fields, at the same time raising their level 
above the river and canal, and giving them better drainage. In 
this way they turn to use what would otherwise be waste, and 
cause the labour which would be expended in disposal to count 
in a remunerative way. 

During the early morning ride to Canton Christian College and 
three other rides which we were permitted to enjoy in the launch 
on the canal and river waters, everything was strange, fascinating 
and full of human interest. The Cantonese water population was 
a surprise, not so much for its numbers as for the lithe, sinewy 
forms, bright eyes and cheerful faces, particularly among the 
women, young and old. Nearly always one or more women, 
mother and daughter oftenest, grandmother many times, wrin- 
kled, sometimes grey, but strong, quick and vigorous in motion, 
were manning the oars of junks, houseboats and sampans. 
Sometimes husband and wife and many times the whole family 
were seen together when the craft was both home and business 
boat as well. Little children were gazing from most unexpected 
peep-holes, or they toddled tethered from a waist-belt at the end 
of as much rope as would arrest them above water, should they 
go overboard. The cat, too, was similarly tied. Through an over- 
hanging latticed stern, hens craned their necks, longing for scenes 
they could not reach. With bare heads, bare feet, in short trousers 
and all dressed much alike, men, women, boys and girls showed 
equal mastery of the oar. Beginning so young, day and night in 
the open air on the tide-swept streams and canals, exposed to all 
the sunshine the fogs and clouds permit, and removed from the 
dust and filth of streets, it would seem that if the children survive 
at all they must develop strong physiques. The appearance of 



76 TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 

the women scmchow conveyed the impression that they were 
more vigorous and in better fettle than the men. 

Boats selling many kinds of steaming hot dishes were common. 
Among these were packets of rice tied in green leaf wrappers, in 
clusters of three suspended by a strand of some vegetable fibre, to 
be handed hot from the cooker to the purchaser on a passing 
junk. Another purchaser would buy hot water for a brew of tea, 
while to another, and for a single cash, would be handed a small 
square of cotton cloth, wrung out of hot water, with which he 
would wipe his face and hands and then return it. 

Perhaps nothing better measures the intensity of the main- 
tenance struggle here, and indicates the minute economies prac- 
tised, than the value of their smallest currency unit, the cash, 
used in their daily retail transactions. On the Pacific coast, where 
less thought is given to little economies than perhaps anywhere 
else in the world, the nickel is the smallest coin in general use, 
twenty of which are equal to the dollar. For the rest of the 
United States and in most English-speaking countries one hun- 
dred cents or halfpennies measure an equal value. In Russia 170 
kopecks, in Mexico 200 contavos, in France 250 two-centime 
pieces, and in Austria-Hungary 250 two-heller coins equal the 
United States dollar; while in Germany 400 pfennigs, and in India 
400 pie are required for an equal value. Again 500 penni in 
Finland and of stotinki in Bulgaria, of centesimi in Italy and of 
half cents in Holland, equal the United States dollar. But in 
China the small daily financial transactions are measured against 
a much smaller \mit, their cash, 1,500 to 2,000 of which are equal 
to the United States dollar. 

In the Shantung province, when we inquired of the farmers the 
selling prices of their crops, their replies were given like this: 
'Thirty-five strings of cash for 420 catties of wheat and twelve to 
fourteen strings of cash for 1,000 catties of wheat straw.' At this 
time, according to my interpreter, the value of one string of cash 
was 40 cents Mexican, from which it appears that something like 
250 of these coins were threaded on a string. Twice we saw a 
wheelbarrow heavily loaded with strings of cash being transported 
through the streets, lying exposed on the frame,- suggesting 
chains of copper rather than money. At one of the go-downs or 
warehouses in Tsingtao, where freight was being transferred from 



SANITARY MEASURES 77 

a steamer, the carriers were receiving their pay in these coins. 
The paymaster stood in the doorway with half a bushel of loose 
cash in a grain sack at his feet. With one hand he received the 
bamboo tally-sticks from the stevedores and with the other paid 
out the cash for the service rendered. 

Reference has been made to buying hot water. In a sampan 
managed by a woman and her daughter, who took us ashore, the 
middle section of the boat was furnished in the manner of a tiny 
sitting-room, and on the sideboard were teapots in padded 
baskets suggestive of our fireless cookers, keeping boiled water 
hot for making tea. This device is centuries old, and boiled water, 
as tea, is the universal drink, adopted no doubt as a preventive 
measure against typhoid fever and allied diseases. Few vegetables 
are eaten raw and nearly all foods are taken hot or recently 
cooked if not in some way pickled or salted. Houseboat meat 
shops moved among the many junks on the canals. These were 
provided with a receptacle, communicating freely with the canal 
water, in which fish were kept alive until sold. At the street 
markets too, fish are kept alive in large tubs of w^atcr systemati- 
cally aerated by water falling from an elevated receptacle in a thin 
stream. Poultry is largely retailed alive although we saw much of 
it dressed, salted and cooked to a uniform rich brown, hanging 
exposed in the markets. From facts like these it may be seen 
that among these people many fundamental sanitary practices 
are rigidly observed. 

The mechanical appliances in use on the canals and in the shops 
of Canton demonstrate that the Chinese possess constructive 
ability oi a high order, notwithstanding that many of these 
appliances are of the simplest kind. This statement is well illus- 
trated in the simple yet efficient foot-power shown in Fig. 3G, 
where a father and his two sons are seen to be driving an irrigation 
pump, lifting water at the rate of seven and a half acre-inches per 
ten hours, and at a cost, including wage and food, of 36 to 45 
cents, gold. On the canals were large stern-wheel passenger boats, 
capable of carrying from 30 to 100 people, propelled by the same 
foot-power, the men working in long single or double lines, depend- 
ing on the size of the boat. On these the fare w^as one cent, gold, 
for a 15-mile journey, a rate one- thirtieth of our two-cent railway 
tariff. The dredging and clearing of the canals and water channels 



78 



TO HONG-KONG AND CANTON 



in and about Canton is likewise accomplished by the same foot- 
power, often by families living on the dredge boats. A dipper 
dredge is used, constructed of strong bamboo strips woven into the 
form of a sliding, two-horse road scraper, guided by a long bamboo 
handle. The dredge is drawn along the bottom by a rope winding 










Fig. 36. - The wooden foot-power of China, used to propel the wooden-chain 

irrigation pump. 

about the projecting axle of the foot-power, propelled by three or 
more people. When the dipper reaches the axle and is raised 
from the water it is swung aboard, emptied and returned by 
means of a long arm like the old well sweep, operated by a cord 
depending from the lower end of the lever, the dipper swinging 
from the other. Much of the mud so collected from the canals 



CHINESE FOOT-POWEE 79 

and channels of the city is taken to the rice and mulberry fields, 
man)^ square miles of which occupy the surrounding country. 
Thus the channels are kept open, the fields grow steadily higher 
above flood level, while their productive power is maintained by 
the plant food and organic matter carried in the sediment. 

The mechanical principle involved in the boy's button buzz 
was applied in Canton and in many other places for operating 
small drills as well as in grinding and polishing appliances used in 
the manufacture of ornamental ware. The drill, as used for boring 
metal, is set in a straight shaft, often of bamboo, on the upper 
end of which is mounted a circular weight. The drill is driven by 
a pair of strings with one end attached just beneath the momen- 
tum weight and the other fastened at the ends of a cross hand- 
bar, having a hole at its centre through which the shaft carrying 
the drill passes. Holding the drill in position for work and turning 
the shaft, the two cords are wrapped about it in such a manner 
that simple downward pressure on the hand-bar held in the two 
hands unwinds the cords and thus revolves the drill. Relieving 
the pressure at the proper time permits the momentum of the 
revolving weight to rewind the cords and the next downward 
pressure brings the drill again into service. 



TV 
UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVEE 

ON the morning of March 10th we took passage on the Nanning 
for Wuchow, in Kwangsi province, a journey of 220 miles up 
the West River, or Si-kiang. The Nanning is one of two English 
steamers making regular trips between the two places, and it was 
the sister boat which in the summer of 1906 was attacked by 
pirates on one of her trips and all of the officers and first-class 
passengers killed while at dinner. The cause of this attack, it is 
said, or the excuse for it, was threatened famine resulting from 
destructive floods which had ruined the rice and mulberry crops 
of the great delta region and had prevented the carrying of manure 
and bean cake as fertilizers to the tea fields in the hill lands 
beyond, thus bringing ruin to three of the great staple crops of the 
region. To avoid the recurrence of such tragedies the first-class 
quarters on the N arming had been separated from the rest of the 
ship by heavy iron gratings thrown across the decks and over the 
hatchways. Armed guards stood at the locked gateways, and 
swords were hanging from posts under the awnings of the first 
cabin quarters. Both British and Chinese gunboats were patrol- 
ling the river; all Chinese passengers, even the Government sol- 
diers, were searched for concealed weapons as they came aboard, 
and all arms taken into custody until the end of the journey, 
Several of the large Chinese merchant junks which we passed 
were armed with small cannon, and when riding by rail from 
Canton to Sam Shui, a government pirate detective was in our 
coach. 

The Si-kiang is one of the great rivers of China and indeed of the 
world. Its width at Wuchow at low water was nearly a mile, and 
our steamer anchored in 24 feet of water to a floating dock made 
fast by hiige iron chains reaching 300 feet up the slope to the city 
proper, thus providing for a rise of 2G feet in the river at its flood 
stage during the rainy season. In a narrow section of the river 
where it winds through Shui Hing gorge, the water at low stage 
has a depth of more than 25 fathoms, too deep for anchorage, so 
in times of prospective fog, boats wait for clear weather. On 
account of these fluctuations in the height of the river vessels pass- 

80 



THE DELTA REGION 81 

ing up to Wuchow are limited to those drawing 6| feet of water 
during the low stage, and at high stage to those drawing IG feet. 

When the West River emerges from the high lands, with its 
burden of silt, to join its waters with those of the North and 
East rivers, it has entered a vast delta plain some 80 miles 
from east to west and nearly as many from north to south. This 
plain has been canalized, diked, drained and converted into the 
most productive of fields, bearing three or more crops each year. 
As we passed westward through the delta region the broad flat 
fields, surrounded by dikes to protect them against high water, 
were being ploughed and fitted for the coming crop of rice. In 
many places the dikes were planted with bananas and in the 
distance gave tlie appearance of extensive orchards. 

At times we approached near enough to the fields to see how 
they were laid out. From the gates long canals, 6 to 8 feet wide, 
led back sometimes 80 or 100 rods. Across these and at right 
angles, head channels were cut ana between them the fields were 
ploughed in long straight landtj some 2 rods wide, separated by 
water furrows. Many of the fields were bearing sugar-cane stand- 
ing 8 feet high. The Chinese do no sugar refining but boil the sap 
until it is ready to solidify, when it is run into cakes resembling 
chocolate or brown maple sugar. Immense quantities of sugar- 
cane, too, are exported to the northern provinces, in bundles 
wrapped up in matting or other cover. 

In many places the water-course was too broad to permit 
detailed study of field conditions and crops, even with a glass. In 
such sections the recent dikes often had the appearance of being 
built from limestone blocks, but a closer view showed them con- 
structed from blocks of the river silt cut and laid in walls with 
slightly sloping faces. In time, however, the blocks weather and 
the dikes become rounded earthen walls. 

We passed two men in a boat, in charge of a huge flock of some 
hundreds of yellow ducklings. Anchored to the bank was a 
large houseboat with a stack of rice straw and other things which 
constituted the floating home of the ducks. Both ducks and geese 
are reared in this manner in large numbers by the river popula- 
tion. When it is desired to move to another feeding ground a 
gang plank is put ashore and the flock come on board to remain 
for the night or to be landed at another place. 



82 



UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST KIVER 



About five hours' journey westward in this delta plain, where 
the fields lie 6 to 10 feet above the present water stage, we reached 
the mulberry district. Here the plants are cultivated in rows 
about 4 feet apart, having the habit of small shrubs rather than 
of trees, and so much resembling cotton that our first impression 
was that we were in an extensive cotton district. On the lower 
lying areas, surrounded by dikes, some fields were laid out in the 




Fio. 37. - Field of mulberry having the surface covered with fresh earth taken 
from ditches dividing the land into bods. 

manner of the old Italian or English water meadows, with a 
shallow irrigation furrow along the crest of the bed and deeper 
drainage ditc hes along the division line between them. Mulberries 
were occupying the ground before the freshly cut trenches we 
saw were dug, and all the surface between the rows had been 
evenly overlaid with the fresh earth removed with the spade, the 
soil lying in blocks essentially unbroken. In Fig. 37 may be seen 
the mulberry crop on a surface treated in this way, between Can- 
ton and Sam Shui, with the earth removed from the trenches laid 
evenly over the entire surface between and around the plants. 



MULBEREY FIELDS 83 

At frequent intervals along the river, paths and steps were seen 
leading to the water and within a distance of a quarter of a mile we 
counted thirty-one men and women carrying mud in baskets on 
bamboo poles swung across their shoulders, the mud being taken 
Jrom just above the water line. The disposition of this material 
we could not see, as it was carried beyond a rise in ground. We 
have little doubt that the mulberry fields were being covered 
with it. It was here that a rain set in and almost like magic 
the fields blossomed out with great numbers of giant rain hats and 
kittysols, where people had been unobserved before. From one 
o'clock until six in the afternoon we had travelled continuously 
through these mulberry fields stretching back miles from our 
line of travel on either hand, and the total acreage must have 
been very large. But we had now nearly reached the margin of 
the delta and the mulberries were exchanged for fields of grain, 
beans, peas and vegetables. 

After leaving the delta region, the balance of the journey to 
Wuchow was through hill country, the slopes rising steeply from 
near the river bank, so that there was relatively little tilled or 
readily tillable land. Rising usually 500 to 1,000 feet, the sides 
and summits of the rounded, soil-covered hills were generally 
clothed with a short herbaceous growth and small scattering 
trees, oftenest pine, 4 to 16 feet high. 

In several sections along the course of the river there are 
limited areas of intense erosion where naked gulleys of no mean 
magnitude have developed; but these were exceptions, and we 
were continually surprised at the remarkable steepness of the 
slopes, with convexly rounded contours almost everywhere, well 
mantled with soil, devoid of gulleys and completely covered with 
herbaceous growth dotted with small trees. The absence of forest 
growth finds its explanation in human influence rather than 
natural conditions. 

Throughout the hill-land section of this mighty river the most 
characteristic and persistent human features were the stacks of 
brushwood and the piles of firewood along the banks or loaded 
upon boats and barges for the market. The brush-wood was 
largelv; made from the boughs of pine, tied into bundles and 
stacked like grain. The firewood was usually round, peeled and 
made from the limbs and trunks of trees 2 to 5 inches in diameter. 



84 UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVER 

All this fuel was coming to the river from the back country, sent 
down along steep slides which in the distance resemble paths lead- 
ing over hills but too steep for travel. The fuel was loaded upon 
large barges, the boughs in the form of stacks to shed rain but 
with a tunnel leading into the house of the boat about which they 
were stacked, while the wood was similarly corded about the 
dwelling. The wood was going to Canton and other delta cities, 
while the pine boughs were taken to the lime and cement kilns, 
many of which were located along the river. Absolutely the whole 
tree, including the roots and the needles, is saved and burned; no 
waste is permitted. 

The up-river cargo of the N mining was chiefly matting rush, 
taken on at Canton, tied in bundles like sheaves of w^heat. It is 
grown upon the lower, newer delta lands by methods of culture 
similar to those applied to rice. Fig. 38 shows a field as seen in 
Japan. 

The rushes were being taken to one of the country villages on a 
tributary of the Si-kiang and the steamer was met by a flotilla of 
junks from this village, some 45 miles up the stream, where the 
families live who do the weaving. On the return trip the flotilla 
again met the steamer with a cargo of the woven matting. In 
keeping record of packages transferred the Chinese use a simple 
and unique method. Each carrier, with his two bundles, received 
a pair of tally sticks. At the gang-plank sat a man with a tally- 
case divided into twenty compartments, each of which could 
receive five, but no more, tallies. As the bundles left the steamer 
the tallies were placed in the tally-case until it contained one 
hundred, when it was exchanged for another. 

Wuchow is a city of some 65,000 inhabitants, standing back 
on the higher ground, not readily visible from the steamer landing 
nor from the approach on the river. On the foreground, across 
which stretched the anchor chains of the dock, was living a 
floating population, in shelters less substantial than Indian wig- 
wams, but engaged in a great variety of work, and many water 
buffalo had been tied for the night along the anchor chains. 
Before July much of this area would lie beneath the flood waters 
of the river. 

Here a ship-builder was using his simple effective bow-brace, 
boring holes for the dowel pins in the planking for his ship, and 



MATTING RUSH 



85 




86 UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVER 

another was bending the plank to the proper curvature. The 
bow-brace consisted of a bamboo stalk carrying the bit at one 
end and a shoulder rest at the other. Pressing the bit to its work 
with the shoulder, it was driven with the string of a long bow 
wrapped once around the stalk by drawing the bow back and 
forth, thus rapidly and readily revolving the bit. 

The bending of the long, heavy plank, 4 inches thick and 8 
inches wide, was more simple still. It was saturated with water 




Fio. 39. - Wooden fork shaped from tlie limbs of a tree by sim})le means of 
steaining and drying. 

and one end raised on a support 4 feet above the ground. A 
bundle of burning rice straw moved along the under side against 
the wet wood had the effect of steaming the wood and the weight 
of the plank caused it to gradually bend into the shape desired. 
Bamboo poles are commonly bent or straightened in this manner 
to suit any need and Fig. 39 shows a wooden fork shaped in the 
manner described from a small tree having three main branches. 
This fork is in the hands of my interpreter and was used by the 
woman standing at the right, in turning wheat. 

When the old ship-builder had finished shaping his plank he 



GARDENING AXSAMSHUI 87 

sat down on the ground for a smoke. His pipe was one joint of 
bamboo stem 1 foot long, nearly 2 inches in diameter and open at 
one end. In the closed end, at one side, a small hole was bored for 
draught. A charge of tobacco was placed in the bottom, the lips 
pressed into the open end and the pipe lighted by suction, holding 
a Ughted match at the small opening. To enjoy his pipe the bowl 
rested on the ground between his legs. With his lips in the bowl 
and a long breath, he would completely fill his lungs, retaining the 
smoke for a time, then slowly expire and fill the lungs again, after 
an interval of natural breathing. 

On returning to Canton we went by rail, with an interpreter, to 
Sam Shui, visiting fields along the way. Fig. 40 is a view of one 
landscape. The woman was picking roses among tidy beds of 
garden vegetables. Beyond her and in front of the near building 
are two rows of waste receptacles. In the centre background is a 
large 'go-down,' in function that of our cold storage warehouse 
and in part that of our grain elevator for rice. In them, too, the 
wealthy store their fur-lined winter garments for safe keeping. 
These are numerous in this portion of China and the rank of a city 
is indicated by their number. The conical hillock is a large near-by 
grave mound and many others serrate the sky-line on the hill 
beyond. 

In the next landscape, Fig. 41, a crop of winter peas, trained 
to canes, are growing on ridges among the stubble of the second 
crop of rice. In front is one canal, the double ridge behind is 
another and a third canal extends in front of the houses. Already 
preparations were being made for the first crop of rice, fields were 
being flooded and fertilized. One such is seen in Fig. 42, where 
a labourer was engaged at the time in bringing stable manure, 
wading into the water to empty the baskets. 

Two crops of rice are commonly grown each year in southern 
China, and during the winter and early spring, grain, cabbage, 
rape, peas, beans, leeks and ginger may occupy the fields as a 
third or even fourth crop, making the total year's product from 
the land very large; but the amount of thought, labour and fer- 
tilizers given to securing these is even greater. How great these 
efforts are will be appreciated from what is seen in Fig. 43, 
representing two fields thrown into high ridges, planted to ginger 
and covered with straw. All of this work is done by hand and 



UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVER 




GAEDENING AT SAM SHUT 



89 




90 



UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVER 







^BI^^^^^^Hr' 


B| 




^^^HEji **<^^B^*^ 






tmi 




1^^^ i* 








JHH'-'' 


^^^B '^JK< 


^^^^^Hl'' 


h' 




^Hk 



GARDENING AT SAM SHUT 



91 



when the time for rice planting comes every ridge will again be 
thrown down and the sm-face smoothed to a water level. Even 
when the ridges and beds are not thrown down for the crops of 





Fig. 43. - Fields of gingci ju-i pUnud, ulI^llI and liumunl im diaiiiage, showing 
the amount of hand labour performed to secure the winter crop, following 
two of rice. 



rice, the furrows and the beds will change places so that all the 
soil is worked over deeply and mainly through hand labour. 
The statement so often made, that these people only barely 
scratch the surface of their fields with the crudest of tools, is very 
far from the truth, for their soils are worked deeply and often, 



92 UP THE SI-KIANG, WEST RIVEE 

notwitlistauding the fact that their ploughing, as sucli, may be 
shallow. 

Through Dr. John Blumann of the missionary hospital at 
Tungkun, east from Canton, we learned that the good rice lands 
there a few years ago sold at $75 to $130 per acre, but that prices 
are rising rapidly. The holdings of the better class of farmers 
there are 10 to 15 mow - If to 2-|- acres - upon which are main- 
tained families numbering six to twelve. The day's wage of a 
carpenter or mason is 11 to 13 cents, U.S. currency, board not 
included, but a day's ration for a labouring man is counted worth 
15 cents, Mexican, or less than 7 cents, gold. 

Fish culture is practised in both deep and shallow basins, the 
deep permanent ones renting as high as $30, gold, per acre. The 
shallow basins which can be drained in the dry season are used for 
fish only during the rainy period, being later drained and planted 
to some crop. The permanent basins have often come to be 10 oi 
12 feet deep, increasing with long usage, for they are periodically 
drained by pumping and the foot or two of mud which has accu- 
mulated removed and sold as fertilizer to planters of rice and 
other crops. It is a common practice, too, among the fish growers, 
to fertilize the ponds, and in case a footpath leads alongside, 
screens are built over the water to provide accommodation for 
travellers. Fish reared in the better fertilized ponds bring a 
higher price in the market. The fertilizing of the water favours a 
stronger growth of food forms, both plant and animal, upon which 
the fish live, and thus they are better nourished, and make a more 
rapid growth, as is the case with well-fed animab. 



EXTENT OF CANALIZATION AND 
SURFACE FITTING OF FIELDS 

ON the evening of March 15th we left Canton for Hong-Kong 
and the following day embarked again on the Tosa Maru for 
Shanghai. Although our steamer was generally out of sight of 
land except for some off-shore islands, the water was turbid most 
of the way after we had crossed the Tropic of Cancer off the mouth 
of the Han River at Swatow. Over a sea bottom measuring more 
than 600 miles northward along the coast, and perhaps 50 miles to 
sea, unnumbered acre-feet of the richest soil of China are being 
borne beyond the reach of her 400 millions of people and the chil- 
dren to follow them. Surely it must be one of the great tasks 
of future statesmanship and engineering skill to divert larger 
amounts of such sediments close along inshore in such a manner 
as to add valuable land annually to the public domain. 

In the vast Cantonese delta plains which we had just left, in 
the still more extensive ones of the Yangtse-kiang to which we 
were now going, and in those of the shifting Hwang-ho further 
north, centuries of toiling millions have executed works of almost 
incalculable magnitude, fundamentally along such lines as those 
just suggested. They have accomplished an enormous share of 
these tasks by sheer force of body and will, building levees, digging 
canals, diverting the turbid waters of streams through them and 
then carrying the deposits of silt and organic growth out upon the 
fields, often upon the shoulders of men in the manner we have 
seen. 

It is wellnigh impossible, by word or map, to convey an ade- 
quate idea of the magnitude of the systems of canalization and 
delta and other lowland reclamation work, or of the extent oi 
surface-fitting of fields which have been effected in China, Korea 
and Japan through many centuries, and which are still in progress. 
The lands so reclaimed and fitted constitute their most enduring 
asset and support their densest populations. In one of our jour- 
neys by houseboat on the delta canals between Shanghai and 
Hangchow, over a distance of 117 miles, we made a careful record 
of the cumber and dimensions of lateral canals entering and leav- 

93 



94 



EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 




FlQ. 44. - Map of main canals in 718 sqitare miles of Chekiang Province. Each line 
represents a canal. 



MILES OF CANALS 



95 



ing the main canal along which our boat-train was travelling. 
This record shows that in 02 miles, beginning north of Kashing 
and extending south to Hangrhow, there entered from the west 
134 and there left on the coast side 190 canals. The average width 
of these canals, measured along the water line, we estimated at 22 
and 19 feet on the two sides respectively. The height of the fields 
above the water level ranged from 4 to 12 feet, during the April 
and May stage of water. The depth of water, after we entered the 




Fio. 4.5. — Sketch map of portions of Chekiang and Kiangsu Provinces, represent- 
ing some 2,700 miles of main canals and over 300 miles of sea-wall. The sea- 
walls are represented by the very heavy black lines. The small rectangle 
shows the area covered by Fig. 44. 



Grand Canal, often exceeded 6 feet, and our best judgment would 
place the average depth of all canals in this part of China at more 
than 8 feet below the level of the fields. 

In Fig. 44, representing an area of 718 square miles in the 
region traversed, all the lines are canals, but scarcely more than 
one-third of the actual number are shown. Between A, where we 
began our records, before reaching Kashing, and B, near the left 



96 EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 

margin of the map, there were forty-three canals leading in from 
the up-country side, instead of the eight shown, and on the coast 
side there were eighty-six leading water out into the delta plain 
toward the coast, instead of the twelve shown. Again, on one of 
our trips by rail, from Shanghai to Nanking, we made a similar 
record of the number of canals seen from the train, close along the 
track, and the notes show, in a distance of 162 miles, 593 canals 
between Lungtan and Nansiang. This is an average of more than 
three canals per mile for this region and that between Shanghai 
and Hangchow. 

The extent, nature and purpose of these vast systems of internal 
improvement may be better realized through a study of the next 
two sketch maps. The first, Fig. 45, represents an area 175 by 
160 miles, of which the last illustration is the portion enclosed in 
the small rectangle. On this area there are shown 2,700 miles of 
canals, and only about one-third of the canals shown in Fig. 44 
are laid down on this map. According to our personal observa- 
tions there are three times as many canals as are shown on the map 
of which Fig. 44 represents a part. It is probable, therefore, that 
there exists to-day in the area of Fig. 45 not less than 25,000 miles 
of canals. 

In the next illustration. Fig. 46, an area of north-east China, 
600 by 725 miles, is represented. The unshaded land area covers 
nearly 200,000 square miles of alluvial plain. This plain is so level 
that at Ichang, nearly a thousand miles up the Yangtse, the 
elevation is only 130 feet above the sea. The tide is felt on the 
river to beyond Wuhu, 375 miles from the coast. During the 
summer the depth of water in the Yangtse is sufficient to permit 
ocean vessels drawing 25 feet of water to ascend 600 miles to 
Hankow, and for smaller steamers to go on to Ichang, 400 miles 
further. 

The location, in this vast low delta and coastal plain, of the 
system of canals already described, is indicated by the two 
rectangles in the south-east corner of the sketch map. Fig. 46. 
The heavy barred black line extending from Haijgchow in the 
south to Tientsin in the north represents the Grand Canal which 
has a length of more than 800 miles. Westward, up the Yangtse 
valley, the provinces of Anhwei, Kiangsi, Hunan and Hupeh have 
very extensive canalized tracts. Still further west, in Szechwan 



MILES OF CANALS 



97 



province, is the Chengtu plain, 30 by 70 miles, with what has been 
called 'the most remarkable irrigation system in China.' 

Westward beyond the limits of the sketch map, up the Hwang- 
ho valley, there is a reach of 125 miles of irrigated lands about 




Fig. 46. - Sketch map of north-east China showing the alluvial plain and the 
Grand Canal, extending 800 miles from Hangchow to Tientsin. The unshaded 
land area lies mostly less than 100 feet above sea level. 



Ninghaifu, and others still farther west, at Lanchowfu and at 
Suchow where the river has attained an elevation of 5,000 feet, 
in Kansu province; and there is still to be named the great Canton 
delta region. A conservative estimate would place the miles of 
canals and leveed rivers in China, Korea and Japan equal to eight 
times the number represented in Fig. 45. Fully 200,000 miles in 
F.F.C. D 



98 EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 

all. Forty canals across the United States from east to west and 
sixty from north to south would not equal in number of miles 
those in these three countries to-day. Indeed, it is probable that 
this estimate is not too large for China alone. 

As adjuncts to these vast canalization works there have been 
enormous amounts of embankment, dike and levee construction. 
More than 300 miles of sea wall alone exist in the area covered by 
the sketch map, Fig. 45. The east bank of the Grand Canal, 
between Yangchow and Hwaianfu, is itself a great levee, holding 
back the waters to the west above the eastern plain, and diverting 
them south, into the Yangtse-kiang. But it is also provided with 
spillways to permit waters to discharge eastward in times of 
excessive flood. Such excess waters, however, are controlled by 
another dike with a canal along its west side, some 40 miles to the 
east, which impounds the water in a series of large lakes until it 
may gradually drain away. This area is seen in Fig. 46, north of 
the Yangtse River. 

Along the banks of the Yangtse, and for many miles along the 
Hwang-ho, great levees have been built. Sometimes they are in 
reinforcing series of two or three at different distances back from 
the channel where the stream bed is above the adjacent country. 
Their purpose is to limit the inundated areas in times of unusual 
flood, and so prevent the disaster from becoming widespread. In 
the province of Hupeh, where the Han River flows through 200 
miles of low country, this stream is diked on both sides throughout 
the whole distance, and in a portion of its course the height of the 
levees reaches thirty feet or more. Again, in the Canton delta 
region there are other hundreds of miles of sea wall and dikes, so 
that the aggregate mileage of this type of construction works in 
the Empire can only be measured in ^ousands of miles. 

In addition to the canal and levee construction works there are 
numerous impounding reservoirs which are brought into requisi- 
tion to control overflow waters from the great streams. Two of 
these reservoirs, Tungting lake in Hupeh and Poyang in Hunan, 
have areas of 2,000 and 1,800 square miles respectively, and during 
the heaviest rainy seasons each may rise through 20 to 30 feet. 
Then there are other large and small lakes in the coastal plain 
giving an aggregate reservoir area exceeding 13,000 square miles. 
All these are brought into service in controlling flood waters, and 



VAST CONSTEUCTION WORKS 9^ 

are steadily filling with the sediments brought from the far-away 
uncultivable mountain slopes. They are ultimately destined to 
become rich alluvial plains, doubtless to be canalized in the 
manner we have seen. 

There is still another phase of these vast construction works 
which has been of the greatest moment in increasing the main- 
tenance capacity of the Empire - the wresting from the flood 
waters of the enormous volumes of silt which they carry, deposit- 
ing it over the flooded areas, in the canals and along the shores in 
such manner as to add to the habitable and cultivable land. 
Reference has been made to the rapid growth of Chungming 
Island in the mouth of the Yangtse-kiang, and the million people 
now finding homes on the 270 square miles of newly made land 
which now has its canals, as may be seen in the upper margin of 
Fig. 45. The city of Shanghai, as its name signifies, stood origin- 
ally on the seashore, which has now grown 20 miles north w^ard and 
eastward. In 220 B.C. the town of Putai in Shantung stood one- 
third of a mile from the sea, but in 1730 it was 47 miles inland, 
and is 48 miles from the shore to-day. 

Sienshuiku, on the Pei-ho, stood upon the seashore in a.d. 500. 
We passed the city, on our way to Tientsin, 18 miles inland. The 
dotted line laid in from the coast of the Gulf of Chihli in Fig. 46 
marks one historic shore line and indicates a general growth of 
land 18 miles to seaward. 

Besides these actual extensions of the shore lines the centuries 
of flooding of lakes and low-lying lands has so filled many depres- 
sions as to convert large areas of swamp into cultivated fields. 
Not only this, but the spreading of canal mud broadcast over the 
encircled fields has had two very important effects - namely, 
raising the level of the low-lying fields, giving them better drain- 
age and so better physical condition, and adding new plant food 
in the form of virgin soil of the richest type, thus contributing to 
the maintenance of soil fertility, high maintenance capacity and 
permanent agriculture through the centuries. 

These operations of maintenance and improvement had a very 
early inception; they appear to have persisted throughout the 
recorded history of the Empire and are in vogue to-day. Canals 
of the type illustrated in Figs. 44 and 45 have been built between 
1886 and 1901, both on the extensions of Chungming Island and 



100 EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 

the newly formed mainland to the north, as is shown by com- 
parison of Stieler's atlas, revised in 1886, with the recent German 
survey. 

Earlier than 2255 B.C., more than 4,100 years ago, Emperor 
Yao appointed 'The Great' Yu 'Superintendent of Works' and 
entrusted him with the work of draining off the waters of disas- 
trous floods and of canalizing the rivers. He devoted thirteen 
years to this work. He was finally called, much against his wishes, 
to serve as Emperor during the last years of his life. 

The history of the Hwang-ho is one of disastrous floods and 
shiftings of its course, which have occurred many times since 
the time of the Great Yu, who perhaps began the works per- 
petuated to-day. Between a.d. 1300 and 1852 the Hwang-ho 
emptied into the Yellow Sea south of the highlands of Shantung, 
but in that year, when in imusual flood, it broke through the 
north levees and finally took its present course, emptying again 
into the Gulf of Chilib, some 300 miles further north. Some of 
these shiftings of course of the Hwang-ho and of the Yangtse- 
kiang are indicated in dotted lines on the sketch map, Fig. 46, 
where it may be seen that the Hwang-ho during 146 years, poured 
its waters into the sea as far north as Tientsin, through the mouth 
of the Pei-ho, 400 miles to the north of its mouth in 1852. 

This mighty river is said to carry at low stage, past the city of 
Tsinan in Shantung, no less than 4,000 cubic yards of water per 
second, and three times this volume when running at flood. This 
is water sufficient to inundate 33 square miles of level country 
10 feet deep in twenty-four hours. What must be said of the 
mental status of a people who for forty centuries have measured 
their strength against such a Titan racing past their homes above 
the level of their fields, confined only between walls of their own 
construction? While they have not always succeeded in control- 
ling the river, they have never failed to try again. In 1877 this 
river broke its banks, inundating a vast area, bringing death to a 
million people. Again, as late as 1898, 1,500 villages to the 
north-east of Tsinan and a much larger area to the south-west of 
the same city were devastated by it, and it is such events as these 
which have won for the river the names 'China's Sorrow,' 'The 
Ungovernable' and 'The Scourge of the Sons of Han.' 

The construction of the Grand Canal appears to have been a 



CANALIZATION AND LAND BUILDING 101 

comparatively recent event in Chinese history. The middle sec- 
tion, between the Yangtse and Tsingkiangpu, is said to have been 
constructed about the sixth century B.C.; the southern section, 
between Chingkiang and Hangchow, during the years a.d. 605 to 
617 ; but the northern section, from the channel of the Hwang- 
ho deserted in 1852, to Tientsin, was not built until the years 
1280-83. 

While this canal, called by the Chinese Yu-ho (Imperial river), 
Yun-ho (Transport river) or Yunliang-ho (Tribute -bearing river), 
has connected the great rivers coming down from the far interior 
into a great water- transport system, it may have been but one of 
many products of a dominating purpose, namely, the maintenance 
of the increasing flood of humanity. And I am willing to grant to 
the Great Yu, with his finger on the pulse of the nation, the power 
to project his vision 4,000 years into the future of his race and 
to formulate some of the measures which might be inaugurated 
through the years and ensure perpetual maintenance for those to 
follow. 

The exhaustion of cultivated fields must always have been the 
most fundamental and difficult problem of all civilized people, and 
it appears clear that such canalization as is illustrated in Figs. 44 
and 45 may primarily have been initial steps in the reclamation 
of delta and overflow lands. At any rate, the canalization of the 
delta and overflow plains of China has been one of the most 
fundamental and fruitful measures for the conservation of her 
national resources that they could have taken, and we are con- 
vinced that this oldest nation in the world has thus greatly aug- 
mented the extension of its coastal plains, conserving hundreds of 
square miles of the richest and most enduring of soils. We believe, 
too, that were a full and accurate account given of human influence 
upon the changes in this remarkable region during the last 4,000 
years, it would show that these gigantic systems of canalization 
have been matters of slow, gradual growth; and that they have 
been initiated and profoundly influenced by the labours of the 
strong, patient, persevering, thoughtful but ever silent husband- 
men in their efforts to acquire homes and to maintain the produc- 
tive power of their fields. 

Nothing appears ■ clearer than that the greatest material 
problem which can engage the best thought of China to-day is 



102 EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 

that of perfecting and extending the means for controlling her 
flood waters. With her millions of people needing homes and 
anxious to earn a livelihood the Government should give serious 
thought to the possibility of putting large numbers of them to 
work, effectively directed by the best engineering skill. It must 
now be entirely practicable, with engineering skill and mechanical 
appliances, to put the Ilwang-ho. and other rivers of China 
subject to overflow, completely under control. With the Hwang- 
ho confined to its channel, the adjacent low lands can be better 
drained by canalization and freed from the accumulating saline 
deposits which are rendering them sterile. Warping might be 
resorted to during the flood season to raise the level of adjacent 
low-lying fields, rendering them at the same time more fertile. 
Where the river is running above the adjacent plains there would 
be no difficulty in drawing oft" the turbid water by gravity, under 
controlled conditions, into diked basins, and even in compelling 
the river to buttress its own levees. There is certainly great need 
and great opportunity for C^hina to malce still better and more 
efficient her already wonderful transportation canals and those 
devoted to drainage, irrigation and fertilization. 

In the United States, along the same lines, now that we are 
considering the development of inland waterways, the subject 
should be surveyed broadly and much careful study may well be 
given to the works these ancient peoples in the East have de- 
veloped and found serviceable through so many centuries. The 
Mississippi is annually bearing to the sea nearly 225,000 acre-feet 
of the most fertile sediment, and between levees along a raised 
bed through 200 miles of country subject to inundation. The time 
has come when there should be undertaken a systematic diversion 
of a large part of this fertile soil over the swamp areas, building 
them into well drained, cultivable, fertile fields provided with 
waterways to serve for drainage, irrigation, fertilization and 
transportation. These great areas of swamp land might thus be 
converted into the most productive rice and sugar plantations to 
be found anywhere in the world, and the area made capable of 
maintaining many millions of people as long as the Mississippi 
endures. 

But the conservation and utilization of the wastes of soil erosion, 
as applied in the delta plain of China, stupendous as this work 



CONSERVATION OF FERTILITY 103 

has been, is nevertheless small when measured by the savings 
which accrue from the careful and extensive fitting of fields so 
largely practised, which both lessens soil erosion and permits a 
large amount of soluble and suspended matter in the run-off to 
be applied to the fields. Mountainous and hilly as are the lands of 
Japan, 11,000 square miles of her cultivated fields in the main 
islands of Honshu, Kyushu and 8hikoku have been carefully 
graded to water level areas, bounded by narrow raised rims, upon 
which sixteen or more inches of run-off water, with its suspended 
and soluble matters, may be applied, a large part of which is 
retained on the fields or utilized by the crop, while surface erosion 
is almost completely prevented. The illustrations, Figs. 9, 10 and 
1 1 , show the application of the principle to the larger and more 
level fields, and in Figs. 134, 135 and 195 may be seen the practice 
on steep slopes. 

If the total area of fields graded practically to a water level in 
Japan aggregates 11,000 square miles, the total area thus surface 
fitted in China must be eight or tenfold this amount. Such 
enormous field erosion as is tolerated at the present time in our 
southern and south Atlantic States is permitted nowhere in the 
Far East, so far as we observed, not even where the topography 
is much steeper. The tea orchards as we saw them on the steeper 
slopes, not level-terraced, are often heavily mulched with straw, 
which makes erosion, even by heavy rains, impossible. This 
treatment retains the rain where it falls, giving the soil opportun- 
ity to receive it under the impulse of both capillarity and gravity, 
and with it the soluble ash ingredients leached from the straw. 
The straw mulches we saw used in this manner were often 6 to 8 
inches deep, and constituted a dressing of not less than 6 tons 
per acre, carrying 140 pounds of soluble potassium and 12 pounds 
of phosphorus. The practice, therefore, gives at once good fertili- 
zation, the highest conservation and utilization of rainfall, and a 
complete protection against soil erosion. 

In the Kiangsu and Chekiang provinces, as elsewhere in the 
densely populated portions of the Far East, we found almost all 
the cultivated fields nearly level or made so by grading. An 
instance showing the type of grading in a comparatively level 
country is seen in Fig 47. By this preliminary surface fitting of 
the fields the people have reduced to the lowest possible limit the 



104 



EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 




CONSERVATION OF FERTILITY 105 

waste of soil fertility by erosion and surface leaching. At the same 
time they are able to retain upon the field the largest part of the 
rainfall practicable, and to compel a much larger proportion of 
the necessary run-of? to leave by under-drainage than would be 
possible otherwise, thus conveying the plant food developed in 
the surface soil to the roots of the crops, while they make possible 
a more complete absorption and retention by the soil of the 
soluble plant food materials not taken up. This same treatment 
also furnishes the best possible conditions for the application of 
water to the fields when supplemental irrigation is helpful, and 
for the withdrawal of surplus rainfall by surface drainage, when 
this is necessary. 

Besides the surface fitting of fields there is a wide application of 
additional methods aiming to conserve both rainfall and soil 
fertility, one of which is illustrated in Fig. 48, showing one end of 
a collecting reservoir. There were three of these reservoirs, con- 
nected with each other by surface ditches and with an adjoining 
canal. About the reservoir the level field is seen to be thrown into 
beds with shallow furrows between the long narrow ridges. The 
furrows are connected by a head drain around the margin of the 
reservoir and separated from it by a narrow raised rim. Such a 
reservoir may be 6 to 10 feet deep but can be completely drained 
only by pumping or by evaporation during the dry season. Into 
such reservoirs the excess surface water is drained and thus all 
suspended matter carried from the field is collected and returned, 
either directly as an application of mud or as material used in 
composts. In the preparation of composts, pits are dug near the 
margin of the reservoir, as seen in the illustration, and into them 
are thrown coarse manure and any roughage in the form of stubble 
or other refuse which may be available, these materials being 
saturated with the soft mud dipped from the bottom of the 
reservoir. 

In all the provinces where canals are abundant they also serve 
as reservoirs for collecting surface washings, and along their banks 
great numbers of compost pits are maintained and repeatedly 
filled during the season, for use on the fields as the crops are 
changed. Fig. 49 shows two such pits on the bank of a canal, 
already filled. 

In other cases, as in the Shantung province, illustrated in Fig. 50, 



106 



EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 




CONSERVING WATER AND FERTILITY 107 




Fiu. 49. - Two compost pits filled with roughage and mud from the canal, in 
preparation of compost for the fields. The narrow path along the canal is 
one of the common thoroughfares in Kiangsu province, 

the surface of the field may be thrown into broad levelled 
lands separated and bounded by deep and wide trenches into 
which the excess water of very heavy rains may collect. As we 




Fio. oO. - Trenching of fields for drainage, conservation of rainfall and of fertility, 
in the Shantung province. Trenches are 2 feet wide on the bottona, 6 or 8 
feet wide at the top, and 2J to 3 feet deep. 



108 EXTENT OF CANALIZATION 

saw them there was no provision for draining the trenches and the 
water thus collected either seeps away or evaporates, or it may 
be returned in part by underflow and capillary rise to the soil from 
which it has been collected. In this province the rains may often 
be heavy but the total fall for the year is small, being little more 
than 24 inches, hence there is the greatest need for the conserva- 
tion so carefully practised. 



VI 

SOME CUSTOMS OF THE COMMON 
PEOPLE 

THE Tosa Maru brought us again into Shanghai on March 
20th, just in time for the first letters from home. A ricksha 
man carried us and our heavy valise at a smart trot from the dock 
to the Astor House, more than a mile, for 8-6 cents, U.S. currency, 
and more than the conventional price for the service rendered. 
On our way we passed several loaded barrows, on which women 
were riding for a fare one-tenth of that which we had paid, but at 
a slower pace and with many a jolt. 

The ringing chorus which came loud and clear when yet half a 
block away announced that the pile drivers were still at work on 
the foundation for an annexe to the Astor House. On May 27th, 
when we returned from the Shantung province, 88 days after we 
saw them first, they were still at the same work but with the task 
then practically completed. Had the eighteen men laboured 
continuously through this interval, the cost of their services to the 
contractor would have been but $205-92. With these conditions 
the engine-driven pile driver could not compete. All ordinary 
labour here receives a low wage. In the Chekiang province farm 
labour employed by the year received $30, silver, and board, ten 
years ago, but now is receiving $50. This is at the rate of about 
$12-90 and $21-50, gold, materially less than is paid per month in 
the United States. At Tsingtao in the Shantung province a mis- 
sionary was paying a Chinese cook $10 per month, a man for 
general work $9 per month, and the cook's wife, for doing the 
mending and other family service, $2 per month, all living at 
home and feeding themselves. This service, rendered for $9 '03, 
gold, per month, covers the marketing, all care of the garden and 
lawn as well as all the work in the house. Missionaries in China 
find such servants reliable and satisfactory, and trust them with 
the purse and the marketing for the table, finding them not only 
honest but far better at a bargain and at economical selection than 
themselves. 

We had a soil tube made in the shops of a large English ship- 
building and repair firm, employing many hundred Chinese as 

109 



110 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

mechanics, using the most modern and complex machinery, and 
the foreman stated that as soon as the men could understand well 
enough to take orders they were even better shop hands than the 
average in Scotland and England. An educated Chinese booking 
clerk at the Soochow railway station in Kiangsu province was 
receiving a salary of $10-75, gold, per month. We had inquired 
the way to the Elizabeth Blake hospital, and he volunteered to 
escort us and did so, the distance being over a mile. He w^ould 
accept no compensation, and yet I was an entire stranger, without 
introduction of any kind. 

Everywhere we went in China, the labouring people appeared 
happy and contented, and showed clearly that they were well 
nourished. The industrial classes are thoroughly organized, 
having had their guilds or labour unions for centuries. Nowhere 
among these densely crowded people, either Chinese, Japanese or 
Korean, did we see one intoxicated. All classes and both sexes 
use tobacco, and the British- American Tobacco Company does a 
business in China amounting to millions of dollars annually. 

Among the most frequent sights in the city streets are the 
itinerant venders of hot foods and confections. Stove, fuel, sup- 
plies and appliances may all be carried on the shouklers, swinging 
from a bamboo pole. The jirinting of calico by a simple yet 
effective method handed down through many generations was one 
of the sights which arrested us. The printer was standing at a 
rough bench upon which a large heavy stone in cubical form 
served as a weight to hold in place a thoroughly lacquered sheet 
of tough cardboard in which was cut the pattern to appear in 
white on the cloth. Beside the stone stood a pot of thick paste 
prepared from a mixture of lime and soy bean flour. The soy beans 
were being ground in a corner of the same room by a diminutive 
edition of such an outfit as seen in Fig. 51. The donkey was work- 
ing in his permanent abode and whenever off duty he halted before 
manger and feed. At the operator's right lay a bolt of white cotton 
cloth fixed to unroll and pass imder the stencil, held stationary by 
the heavy weight. To print, the stencil was raised d.nd the cloth 
brought to place under it. The paste was then deftly spread with a 
paddle over the surface and thus upon the cloth beneath wherever 
exposed through the openings in the stencil. This completes the 
printing of the pattern on one section of the bolt of cloth. The 



CALICO PRINTING 



111 



free end of the stencil is then raised, the cloth passed along the 
proper distance by hand and the stencil dropped in place for the 
next application. The paste is permitted to dry upon the cloth 
and when the bolt has been dipped into the blue dye the portions 
protected by the paste remain white. In this simple manner has 
the printing of calico been done for centuries for the garments 
of millions of children. From the ceiling of the drying-room were 
hanging. some hundreds of stencils bearing different patterns. In 
our great calico mills, printing hundreds of yards per minute, the 




Fig. 51. - Stone mill in common use for grinding beans and various kinds of grain. 

mechanics and the chemistry differ from this primitive method 
only in detail of application and in dispatch, not in fundamental 
principle. 

In almost any direction we travelled outside the city, in the 
pleasant mornings when the air was still, the laying of warp for 
cotton cloth could be seen, to be woven later in the country homes. 
We saw this work in progress many times and in many places in 
the early morning, usually along some roadside or open place, as 
seen in Fig. 52, but never later in the day. When the warp is laid 
each will be rolled upon its stretcher and removed to the house 
to be woven. 



112 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

In many places in Kiangsu province batteries of the large dye 
pits were seen sunk in the fields and lined with cement. These 
were 6 to 8 feet in diameter and 4 to 5 feet deep. In one case there 
were nine pits in the set. Some of the pits were neatly sheltered 
beneath live arbours, as represented in Fig. 53. But much of this 
spinning, weaving, dyeing and printing of late years is being dis- 
placed by the cheaper calicos of foreign make, and most of the 




Fig. 52. - Laying warp in the country for foin' bolts of cntiDU < lutli 



dye pits we saw were not now used for this purpose, the two in the 
illustration serving as manure receptacles. Our interpreter stated, 
however, that there is a growing dissatisfaction with foreign goods 
on account of their lack of durability; and we saw many cases 
where the cloth dyed blue was being dried in large quantities on 
the grave lands. 

In another home for nearly an hour we observed a method of 
boating cotton and of laying it to serve as the body for mattresses 
and the coverlets for beds. This we could do without intrusion 
because the home was also the workshop and opened full width 
directly upon the narrow street. The heavy wooden shutters 
which closed the home at night were serving as a work bench 
about 7 feet square, laid upon movable supports. There was barely 
room to work between it and the sidewalk without impeding 



HOME INDUSTRIES 



113 



traffic, and on the three other sides there was a floor space 3 or 4 
feet wide. In the rear sat grandmother and wife, while in and out 
the four younger children were playing. Occupying the two sides 
of the room were receptacles filled with raw cotton and appliances 
for the work. There may have been a kitchen and sleeping-i oom 
behind, but no door, as such, was visible. The finished mattresses, 
carefully rolled and wrapped in paper, were suspended from the 
ceiling. On the improvised work-table, with its top 2 feet above 
the floor, there had been laid in the morning before our visit, a 
mass of soft white cotton more than 6 feet square and fully 12 
inches deep. On opposite sides of this table the father and his son, 



'^ f "^- ^' 




l^m^^^yj 


S^HiHMft) "s^' 


||i^pjBlig 


B3H| 


w^^^^^^s^Ss 


wtSSSKSm 



Fia. 63. - Two dye pits under woven arbour shelter, now abandoned for their 
original purpose and used as manure receptacles. The trees in the rear are 
a typical clump of bamboo so frequently seen about farm-houses. 



of twelve years, each twanged the string of their heavy bamboo 
bows, snapping the lint from the wads of cotton and flinging it 
broadcast in an even layer over the surface of the growing 
mattress, the two strings the while emitting tones pitched far 
below the hum of the bumble-bee. The heavy bow was steadied by 
a cord secured around the body of the operator, allowing him to 
manage it with one hand and to move readily round his work. By 
this means the lint was expeditiously plucked and skilfully and 
uniformly laid. 

Repeatedly, taken in small bits from the barrel of cotton, the 
lint was distributed over the entire surface with great dexterity 
and uniformity, the mattress growing upward with perfectly 
vertical sides, straight edges and square corners. In this manner a 



114 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

thoroughly uniform texture is secured which compresses into a 
body of even thickness, free from hard places. 

The next step in building the mattress is even more simple and 
expeditious. A basket of long bobbins of roughly spun cotton was 
near the grandmother and probably her handiwork. The father 
took from the wall a slender bamboo rod like a fish-pole, 6 feet 
long, and selecting one of the spools, threaded the strand through 
an eye in the small end. With the ])ole and spool in one hand and 
the free end of the thread, passing through the eye, in the other, 
the father reached the thread across the mattress to the boy who 
hooked his finger over it, carrying it to one edge of the bed of 
cotton. While this was doing the father had whipped the pole 
back to his side and caught the thread over his own finger, 
bringing this down upon the cotton opposite his son. There was 
thus laid a double strand, but the pole continued whipping back 
and forth across the bed, father and son catching the threads and 
bringing them to place on the cotton at the rate of forty to fifty 
courses per minute, and in a very short time the entire surface of 
the mattress had been laid with double strands. A heavy bamboo 
roller was next laid across the strands at the middle, passed care- 
fully to one side, back again to the middle and then to the other 
edge. Another layer of threads was then laid diagonally and this 
similarly pressed with the same roller; then another diagonally the 
other way and finally straight across in both directions. A similar 
network of strands had been laid upon the table before spreading 
the cotton. Next a flat-bottomed, circular, shallow basket-like 
form 2 feet in diameter was used to gently compress the material 
from 12 to 6 inches in thickness. The woven threads were now 
turned over the edge of the mattress on all sides and sewed down, 
after which, by means of two heavy solid wooden disks 18 inches 
in diameter, father and son compressed the cotton until the 
thickness was reduced to 3 inches. There remained the task of 
carefully folding and wrapping the finished piece in oiled paper 
and of suspending it from the ceiling. 

On March 20th, when visiting the Boone Road and Nanking 
Road markets in Shanghai, we had our first surprise regarding the 
extent to which vegetables enter into the daily diet of the Chinese. 
We had observed long processions of wheelbarrow men moving 
from the canals through the streets carrying large loads of the 



V E G Ii: T A B L E MARKET 



115 



green tips of rape in bundles 1 foot long and 5 inches in diameter. 
These had come from the country on boats each carrying tons of 
the succulent leaves and stems. We had counted as many as fifty 
wheelbarrow men passing a given point on the street in quick 
succession, each carrying 300 to 500 pounds of the green rape and 
moving so rapidly that it was not easy to keep pace with them, as 
we learned in following one of the trains for twenty minutes to its 




Fia. 54. 



'Salted cabbage,' proji.iriMl frnm young rape, displayed for sale in Boone 
Koud iiiurkut, Shanghai. 



destination. During this time not a man in the train halted or 
slackened his pace. 

This rape is very extensively grown in the fields, the tips of the 
stems cut when tender and eaten, after being boiled or steamed, 
after the manner of cabbage. Very large quantities are also 
packed with salt in the proportion of about 20 pounds of salt to 
100 pounds of the rape. This (Fig. 54) and many other vegetables 
are sold thus pickled and used as relishes with rice, which invari- 
ably is cooked and served without salt or other seasoning. 



116 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

Another field crop very extensively grown for human food, 
and partly as a source of soil nitrogen, is closely allied to our 
alfalfa. This is the Medicago astragalus, two beds of which are 
seen in Fig. 55. Tender tips of the stems are gathered before the 
stage of blossoming is reached and served as food after boiling 
or steaming. It is known among the foreigners as Chinese 'clover.' 
The stems are also cooked and then dried for use when the crop is 
out of season. When picked very young, wealthy Chinese families 
pay an extra high price for the tender shoots, sometimes as much 
as 20 to 28 cents, U.S. currency, per pound. 

The markets are thronged with people making their purchases 
in the early mornings, and the congested condition, with the great 
variety of vegetables, makes it almost as impressive a sight as 
Billingsgate fish market in London. In the following table we give 
a list of vegetables observed there and the prices at which they 
were selling. 



LIST OF VEGETABLES DISPLAYED FOR SALE IN BOONE ROAD 

MARKET, SHANGHAI, APRIL 6TH, 1909, WITH PRICES 

EXPRESSED IN U.S. CURRENCY. 



Cents. 

Lotus roots, per lb. 1-60 

Bamboo sprouts, per lb. 640 

English cabbage, per lb. 1-33 

Olive greens, per lb. -67 

White greens, per lb. -33 

Tee Tsai, per lb. -53 

Chinese celery, per lb. -67 

Chinese clover, per lb. -53 
Chinese clover, very 

young, per lb. 21-33 
Oblong white cabbage, 

per lb. 2-00 

Red beans, per lb. 1-33 

Yellow beans, per lb. 1-87 

Peanuts, per lb. 249 

Ground nuts, per lb. 2-96 

Cucumbers, per lb, 2-58 

Green pumpkin, per lb. 1-62 



Cents. 
Maize, shelled, per lb. 1-00 
Windsor beans, dry, per 

lb. 1-72 

French lettuce, per head 44 
Hau Tsai, per head -87 

Cabbage lettuce, per head -22 
Kale, per lb. 1-60 

Rape, per lb. -23 

Portuguese watercress, 

per basket 245 

Shang tsor, per basket 8-60 
Carrots, per lb. -97 

String beans, per lb. 1-60 

Irish potatoes, per lb. 1-60 
Red onions, per lb. 4-96 

Long white turnips, per lb. 44 
Flat string beans, per lb. 4-80 
Small white turnips, bunch 44 



VEGET 


ABLE MARKET 


117 




Cents. 




Cents. 


Onion stems, per lb. 


1-29 


Large sweet potatoes, 




Lima beans, green, shellec 


I 


per lb. 


1^33 


per lb. 


6-45 


Small sweet potatoes, 




Egg plants, per lb. 


4-30 


per lb. 


LOO 


Tomatoes, per lb. 


5-16 


Onion sprouts, per lb. 


2^13 


Small flat turnips, per lb. 


•86 


Spinach, per lb. 


LOO 


Small red beets, per lb. 


1-29 


Fleshy stemmed lettuce, 




Artichokes, per lb. 


1-29 


peeled, per lb. 


2^00 


White beans, dry, per lb. 


4-30 


Fleshy stemmed lettuce, 




Radishes, per lb. 


1-29 


unpeeled, per lb. 


•67 


Garlic, per lb. 


2-15 


Bean curd, per lb. 


3^93 


Kohl rabi, per lb. 


2-15 


Shantung walnuts, per lb 


. 4^30 


Mint, per lb. 


4-30 


Duck eggs, per dozen 


8-34 


Leeks, per lb. 


2-13 


Hen's eggs, per dozen 


7^30 


Large celery, bleached, 




Goat's meat, per lb. 


6^45 


per bunch 


2-10 


Pork, per lb. 


6-88 


Sprouted peas, per lb. 


•80 


Hens, live weight, per lb. 


6^45 


Sprouted beans, per lb. 


•93 


Ducks, live weight. 




Parsnips, per lb. 


1-29 


per^lb. 


5^59 


Ginger roots, per lb. 


1^60 


Cockerels, live weight, 




Water chestnuts, per lb. 


1-33 


per lb. 


5-59 



This long list, made up chiefly of fresh vegetables displayed for 
sale on one market day, is by no means complete. The record is 
only such as was made in passing down one side and across one end 
of the market occupying nearly one city block. Nearly everything 
is sold by weight and the problem of correct weights is effectively 
solved by each purchaser carrying his own scales, which he 
unhesitatingly uses in the presence of the dealer. These scales are 
made on the pattern of the old time steelyards, but from slender 
rods of wood or bamboo provided with a scale and sliding poise, 
the suspensions all being made with strings. 

We stood by through the purchasing of two cockerels and the 
dickering over their weight. A dozen live birds were under cover 
in a large openwork basket. The customer took out the birds one 
by one, examining them by touch, finally selecting two, the price 
being named. These the dealer tied together by their feet and 
weighed them, announcing the result; whereupon the customer 



118 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

checked the statement with his own scales. An animated dialogue 
followed, punctuated with many gesticulations and with the 
customer tossing the birds into the basket and turning to go away 
while the dealer grew more earnest. The purchaser finally turned 
back, and again balancing the roosters upon his scales, called a 
bystander to read the weight, and then flung them in apparent 
disdain at the dealer, who caught them and placed them in the 
customer's basket. The storm subsided and the dealer accepted 




Fig. 55. - Two beds of Chinese clover (Medicago astragalus) grown in the garden 
for human food in the season and for soil fertility later. 



92c. Mexican, for the two birds. They were good-sized roosters 
and must have dressed more than three pounds each, yet for the 
two he paid less than 40 cents, U.S. currency. 

Bamboo sprouts are very generally used in China, Korea and 
Japan, and when one sees them growing they suggest giant stalks 
of asparagus, some of them being 3 and even 5 inches -in diameter 
and a foot in height at the stage for cutting. They are shipped in 
large quantities to provinces where they do not grow or when they 
are out of season. Those we saw in Nagasaki had come from Can- 
ton or Swatow or possibly Formosa. The form and foliage of the 



LOTUS AND GINGER 119 

bamboo give the most beautiful effects in the landscape, especially 
when grouped with tree forms. They are usually cultivated in 
small clumps about dwellings in places not otherwise readily 
utiHzed, as seen in Fig. 53. Like the asparagus bud., the bamboo 
sprout grows to its full height between April and August, even 
when it exceeds 30 or even 60 feet in height. The buds spring 
from fleshy underground stems or roots whose stored nourishment 
permits rapid growth, which in its earlier stages will exceed 12 
inches in twenty-four hours. But while the fuU size of the plant is 
attained the first season, three or four years are required to ripen 
and harden the wood sufficiently to make it suitable for the many 
uses to which the stems are put. 

Lotus roots form another article of diet largely used and widely 
cultivated from Canton to Tokio. These are seen in the lower 
section of Fig. 56, and the plants in bloom in Fig. 57, growing in 
water, their natural habitat. The lotus is grown in permanent 
ponds not readily drained for rice or other crops, and the roots are 
widely shipped. 

Sprouted beans and peas of many kinds and the sprouts of other 
vegetables, such as onions, are very generally seen in the markets 
of both China and Japan, at least during the late winter and early 
spring, and are sold as foods. 

Ginger is another crop which is extensively cultivated. It is 
generally displayed in the market in the root form. No one thing 
was more generally hawked about the streets of China than the 
water chestnut. This is a small corm or fleshy bulb having the 
shape and size of a small onion. Boys pare them and sell a dozen 
spitted together on slender sticks the length of a knitting-needle. 
Then there are the water caltropes, grown in the canals, producing 
a fruit resembling a horny nut having a shape which suggests for 
them the name 'buft'alo-horn.' Still another plant, known as water- 
grass {Hydro'pyrmn lati folium), is grown in Kiangsu province, 
where the land is too wet for rice. The plant has a tender succu- 
lent crown of leaves and the peeling of the outer coarser ones away 
suggests the husking of an ear of green corn. The portion eaten is 
the central tender new growth, and when cooked forms a deli- 
cate savoury dish. The farmers' selling price is 3 to 4 dollars, 
Mexican, per 100 catty, or $-97 to $1*29 per hundredweight, and 
the return per acre is from $13 to $20. 



120 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

The small number of animal products which are included in the 
market list given should not be taken as indicating the proportion 




Fig. 56. - Boone Road vegetable market, April 6th, Shanghai, China. The large 
vegetables in the lower section are lotus roots. 

of animal to vegetable foods in the dietaries of these people. It is 
nevertheless true that they are vegetarians to a far higher degree 



ECONOMY OF VEGETABLE DIET 121 

than are most Western nations, and the high maintenance effi- 
ciency of the agriculture of China, Korea and Japan is in great 
measure rendered possible by the adoption of a diet so largely 
vegetarian. Hopkins, in his Soil Fertility and Permanent Agricul- 
ture, page 234, makes this pointed statement of fact: '1,000 bushels 
of grain has at least five times as much food value and will support 
five times as many people as will the meat or milk that can be 
made from it.' He also calls attention to the results of many 




Fig. 57. - Lotus pond with i)iant in bloom; cultivated for their fleshy roots used 
for food, shown in Fig. 56. 



Rothamsted feeding experiments with growing and fattening 
cattle, sheep and swine, showing that the cattle destroyed out- 
right 57-3 pounds in every 100 pounds of dry substance eaten, and 
that this passes off into the air, as the whole of wood does except 
the ashes, when burned in the stove. They left in the excrements 
36-5 pounds, and stored as increase only 6-2 pounds out of the 100. 
With sheep the corresponding figures were 60-1 pounds; 31-9 
pounds and 8 pounds; and with swine they were 65-7 poimds; 
16-7 pounds and 17-6 pounds. But less than two-thirds of the 



122 SOME CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE 

substance stored in the animal can become food for man. Hence 
we get only 4 pounds in 100 of the dry substances eaten by cattle 
in the form of human food; only 5 pounds from the sheep; and 11 
pounds from swine. 

In view of these relations, recently established as scientific facts 
by rigid research, it is remarkable that these ancient people came 
long ago to discard cattle as milk and meat producers; to use sheep 
more for their pelts and wool than for food; while swine are the one 
kind of the three classes which they retained in the role of middle- 
man as transformers of coarse substances into human food. 

It is clear that in the adoption of the succulent forms of vege- 
tables as human food important advantages are gained. At this 
stage of maturity they have a higher digestibility, thus making 
the elimination of the animal less difficult. Their nitrogen content 
is relatively higher and this in a measure compensates for loss of 
meat. By devoting the soil to growing vegetation which man can 
directly digest they have saved 60 pounds per 100 of absolute 
waste by the animal, returning their own wastes to the field for the 
maintenance of fertility. In using these immature forms of vege- 
tation so largely as food they are able to produce an immense 
amount that would otherwise be impossible, as it is grown in a 
shorter time and the same soil produces more crops. It is also 
produced late in the fall and early in the spring when the season is 
too cold and the hours of sunshine too few each day to permit of 
ripening crops. 



VII 

THE FUEL PROBLEM, BUILDING AND 
TEXTILE MATERIALS 

WITH the vast and ever increasing demands made upon the 
products of cultivated fields, for food, for apparel, for 
furnishings and for cordage, better soil management must grow 
more important as populations multiply. With the increasing 
cost and ultimate exhaustion of mineral fuel; with our timber 
vanishing rapidly before the ever-growing demands for lumber 
and paper; with the inevitably slow growth of trees and the very 
limited areas which the world can ever afford to devote to forestry, 
the time must surely come when, in short period rotations, there 
will be grown upon the farm materials from which to manufacture 
not only paper and the substitutes for lumber, but fuels as well. 
The complete utilization of every stream which reaches the sea, 
reinforced by the force of the winds and the energy of the waves, 
cannot fully meet the demands of the future for power and heat; 
hence only in the event of science and engineering skill becoming 
able to transform the unlimited energy of space through which we 
are whirled, with an economy approximating that which crops 
now exhibit, can good soil management be relieved of the task 
of meeting a portion of the world's demand for power and heat. 
When these statements were made in 1905 we did not know 
that for centuries there had existed in China, Korea and Japan a 
density of population such as to require the extensive cultivation 
of crops for fuel and building material, as well as for fabrics, by 
the ordinary methods of tillage, and hence another of the many 
surprises we had was the solution these people had reached of 
their fuel problem. Their solution is direct and the simplest 
possible. Dress to make fuel for warmth of body unnecessary, and 
burn the coarser stems of crops, such as cannot be eaten, or 
employed to feed animals or otherwise made useful. These people 
still use what wood can be grown on the untillable land within 
transporting distance, and convert much wood into charcoal, 
making transportation over longer distances easier. The general 
use of mineral fuels, such as coal, coke, oils and gas, had been 
impossible to these as to every other people until within the last 

123 



124 THE FUEL PROBLEM 

one hundred years. Coal, coke, oil and natural gas, however, have 
been locally used by the Chinese from very ancient times. For 
more than two thousand years brine from many deep wells in 
Szechwan province has been evaporated with heat generated by 
the burning of natural gas from wells, conveyed through bamboo 
stems to the pans and burned from iron terminals. In other 
sections of the same province much brine is evaporated over coal 
fires. Alexander Hosie estimates the production of salt in Szech- 
wan province at more than 600 million pounds annually. 

Coal is here used also to some extent for warming the houses, 
burned in pits sunk in the floor, the smoke escaping where it may. 
The same method of heating we saw in use in the post office at 
Yokohama during February. The fires were in large iron braziers 




Fig. 58. - Charcoal balls briquetted with rice water or clay, for u.se as fuel. 

more than 2 feet across the top, simply set about the room, three 
being in operation. 

In both China and Japan we saw coal dust put into the form 
and size of medium oranges by mixing it with a thin paste of clay. 
Charcoal is similarly moulded, as seen in Fig. 58, a by-product 
from the manufacture of rice syrup being used for cementing. In 
Nanking we watched with much interest the manufacture of char- 
coal briquettes by another method. A Chinese workman was 
seated upon the earth floor of a shop. By his side was a pile of 
powdered charcoal, a dish of rice syrup by-product and a basin of 
the moistened charcoal powder. Between his legs was a heavy 
mass of iron containing a slightly conical mould 2 inches deep, 
2| inches across at the top, and a heavy iron hammer weighing 
several pounds. In his left hand he held a short heavy ramming 
tool and with his right placed in the mould a pinch of the moistened 
charcoal; then followed three well-directed blows from the hammer 



CHAECOAL AND COAL DUST 125 

upon the ramming tool, compressing the charge of moistened, 
sticky charcoal into a very compact layer. Another pinch of 
charcoal was added and the process repeated until the mould was 
filled, when the briquette was forced out. 

By this simplest possible mechanism, the man, utilizing but a 
small part of his available energy, was subjecting the charcoal to 
an enormous pressure, such as we attain only with the best hydrau- 
lic presses. He was using the principle of repeated small charges 
recently patented and applied in our large and most efficient 
cotton and hay presses — a process which permits much denser 
bales to be made than is possible when large charges are added. 
The Chinese is here, as in a thousand other ways, thoroughly 
sound in his application of mechanical principles. 

A Shantung farmer in winter dress (Fig. 16) and the Kiangsu 
woman portrayed in Fig. 59, in corresponding costume, are typical 
illustrations of the manner in which food for body warmth is 
minimized and of the way the heat generated in the body is 
conserved. Observe the farmer's wadded and quilted frock, his 
trousers of similar goods tied about the ankle, with his feet clad 
in multiple socks and cloth shoes provided with thick felted soles. 
These types of dress, with the wadding, quilting, belting and tying, 
incorporate and confine as part of the effective material a large 
volume of air, thus securing without cost, much additional 
warmth without increasing the weight of the garments. Beneath 
these outer garments several under-pieces of different weights are 
worn, which greatly conserve the warmth during the coldest 
weather and make possible a wide range of adjustment to suit 
varying changes in temperature. It is doubtful if there could be 
devised a wardrobe suited to the conditions of these people at a 
smaller first cost and maintenance expense. Rev. E. A. Evans, of 
the China Inland Mission, for many years residing at Sunking in 
Szechwan, estimated that a farmer's wardrobe, once it was 
procured, could be maintained with an annual expenditure of 
$2-25 of our currency, this sum procuring the materials for both 
repairs and renewals. 

The intense individual economy, extending to the smallest 
matters, so imiversally practised by these people, has sustained 
the massive strength of the Mongolian nations through their long 
history, and this trait is seen in their handling of the fuel problem, 



126 



THE I'UEL PHOBLEM 



as it is in all other lines. In the home of Mrs. Wu, owner and 
manager of a 25 -acre rice farm in Chekiang province, there was a 
masonry kang 7 by 7 feet, about 28 inches high, which could be 
warmed in winter by building a fire within. The top was fitted for 
mats to serve as couch by day and as a place upon which to 




Fig. 59. - A Kiangsu country woman in winter dress. 



spread the bed at night. In the Shantimg province we visited the 
home of a prosperous farmer and here found two kangs in separate 
sleeping-apartments, both warmed by the waste heat from the 
kitchen, whose chimney flue passed horizontally under the kangs 
before rising through the roof. These kangs were wide enough to 
spread the beds upon, about 30 inches high. They were con- 



CHIMNEY BEDS 12? 

structed of brick 12 inches square and 4 inches thick. The bricks 
were made from the clay subsoil taken from the fields, worked 
into a plastic mass, mixed with chaff and short straw, dried in the 
sun, and then laid in a mortar of the same material. These mas- 
sive kangs are thus capable of absorbing large amounts of the 
waste heat from the kitchen during the day, and this is again 
given out in congenial warmth by day and to the beds and sleep- 
ing-apartments during the night. In some Manchurian inns large 
compound kangs are so arranged that the guests sleep heads 
together in double rows, separated only by low dividing rails. 
The greatest economy of fuel is thus secured, and the guests are 
provided with places where they may sit upon the moderately 
warmed fire-place, and spread their beds when they retire. 

The economy of the chimney beds does not end with the 
warmth conserved. The earth and straw bricks through the 
processes of fermentation and through shrinkage, become open 
and porous after three or four years of service, causing the draught 
to be defective and giving annoyance from smoke, so that 
renewal becomes necessary. But the heat, the fermentation and 
the absorption of products of combustion have together trans- 
formed the comparatively infertile subsoil into what they regard 
as a valuable fertilizer, and these discarded bricks are used in the 
preparation of compost fertilizers for the fields. 

Our own observations have shown that heating soils to dryness 
at a temperature of 110° C. greatly increases the freedom with 
which plant food may be recovered from them by the solvent 
power of water, and the same heating doubtless improves the 
physical and biological conditions of the soil as well. Nitrogen 
combined as ammonia, and phosphorus, potash and lime are all 
carried with the smoke or soot filter into the porous brick, and 
thus add plant food directly to the soil. Soot from wood has been 
found to contain, on an average, 1-36 per cent of nitrogen; -51 per 
cent of phosphorus, and 5-34 per cent of potassium. We practise 
burning straw and corn-stalks in enormous quantities, to get them 
easily out of the way, thus scattering on the winds valuable plant 
food, thoughtlessly and lazily wasting where these people labori- 
ously and religiously save. These are gains in addition to those 
which result from the formation of nitrates, soluble potash and 
other plant foods through fermentation. We saw many instances 



128 THE FUEL PROBLEM 

where these discarded bricks were being used, both in Shantung 
and Chihli provinces, and it was common in walking through the 
streets of country villages to see piles of them, evidently recently 
removed. 

The fuel grown on the farms consists of the stems of all agricul- 
tural crops which are to any extent woody, unless they can be put 
to some better use. Rice straw, cotton stems pulled by the roots 
after the seed has been gathered, the stems of Windsor beans, those 
of rape and the millets, all pulled by the roots, and many other 
kinds, are brought to the market tied in bundles in the manner 
seen in Figs. 60, 61 and 62. These fuels are used for domestic 
purposes and for the burning of lime, brick, roofing tile and 
earthenware, as well as in the manufacture of oil, tea, bean-curd 
and many other processes. In the home, when the meals are 
cooked with these light bulky fuels, it is the duty of someone, 
often one of the children, to sit on the floor and feed the fire with 
one hand while with the other a bellows is worked to secure sufii- 
cient draught. 

The manufacture of cotton-seed oil and cotton-seed cake is one 
of the common family industries in China, and in one of these 
homes we saw rice hulls and rice straw being used as fuel. In the 
large, low, one-story, tile-roofed building serving as shop, ware- 
house, factory and dwelling, a family of four generations were at 
work, the grandfather supervising in the mill and the grandmother 
leading in the home and shop where the cotton-seed oil was being 
retailed for 22 cents, gold, per pound and the cotton-seed cake at 
33 cents per hundredweight. Back of the shop and living-rooms, 
in the mill compartment, three blindfolded water buffalo, each 
working a granite mill, were crushing and grinding the cotton- 
seed. Three other buffalo, for relay service, were lying at rest or 
eating, awaiting their turn at the ten-hour working day. Two 
of the mills were horizontal granite burrs more than 4 feet in diam- 
eter, the upper one revolving once with each circuit made by the 
cow. The third mill was a pair of massive granite rollers, each 5 
feet in diameter and 2 feet thick, joined on a very short horizontal 
axle which revolved on a circular stone plate about a vertical 
axis once with each circuit of the buffalo. Two men tended the 
three mills. After the cotton-seed had been twice passed through 
the mills it was steamed to render the oil fluid and more readily 



FUEL FOR MANUFACTURERS 



129 




P.F.C. 



130 



THE FUEL PROBLEM 



expressed. The steamer consisted of two covered wooden hoops 
provided with screen bottoms, and in these the meal was phxced 
over openings in the top of an iron kettle of boiling water from 
which the steam was forced through the charge of meal. Each 
charge was weighed in a scoop balanced on the arm of a bamboo 
scale, and so a uniform weight for the cakes was secured. 

On the ground in front of the furnace sat a boy of twelve years 
steadily feeding a fire with rice chaif with his left hand at the rate 





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Fia. 61. - Cotton-stern fiiol being conveyed from the iianals to city innrkot stalls. 



of about thirty charges per minute, while with his right hand, and 
in perfect rhythm, he drew back and forth the long plunger of a 
rectangular box bellows, maintaining a forced draught for the fire. 
At intervals the man who was bringing fuel fed the furnace with 
a bundle of rice straw, thus giving the boy's left ariii a moment's 
respite. When the steaming had rendered the oil sufficiently fluid 
the meal was transferred, hot, to 10-inch hoops 2 inches deep, made 
of braided bamboo strands, and deftly tramped with the bare 
feet, while hot, the operator steadying himself with a pair of hand 



FUEL FOR MANUFACTURERS 



131 




132 THE FUEL PROBLEM 

bars. After a stack of sixteen hoops, divided by a slight sifting 
of chaif or short straw to separate the cakes, had been completed, 
these were taken to one of four pressmen, who were kept busy in 
expressing the oil. 

The presses consisted of two parallel timbers framed together, 
long enough to receive the sixteen hoops on edge above a gap 
between them. These cheeses of meal were subjected to an enor- 
mous pressure secured by means of three parallel lines of wedges 
forced against the follower each by an iron-bound master wedge, 
driven home w^ith a heavy beetle weighing some 25 or 30 pounds. 
The lines of wedges were tightened in succession, the loosened 
line receiving an additional wedge to take up the slack after draw- 
ing back the master wedge, which was then driven home. To keep 
good the supply of wedges, which are often crushed under the 
pressure, a second boy, older than the one at the furnace, was 
working on the floor, shaping new ones, the broken wedges and 
the chips going to the furnace for fuel. 

By this very simple, readily constructed and inexpensive mech- 
anism enormous pressures were secured and when the operator 
had obtained the desired compression he lighted his pipe and sat 
down to smoke until the oil ceased dripping into the pit sunk in 
the floor beneath the press. In this interval the next series of cakes 
went to another press and the work was thus kept up throughout 
the day. Six hundred and forty cakes was the average daily output 
of this family of eight men and two boys, with their six water 
buffalo. 

The cotton- seed cakes were being sold as feed, and a near-by 
Chinese dairyman was using them for his herd of forty water 
buffalo, seen in Fig. 63, producing milk for the. foreign trade in 
Shanghai. This herd of forty cows, one of which was an albino, 
was giving an average of but 200 catty of milk per day, or at the 
rate of 6| pounds per head! The cows have extremely small 
udders but the milk is very rich, as indicated by an analysis made 
in the office of the Shanghai Board of Health and obtained through 
the kindness of Dr. Arthur Stanley. The milk showed a specific 
gravity of 1-028 and contained 20-1 per cent total solids; 7-5 per 
cent fat; 4-2 per cent milk sugar and -8 per cent ash. In the 
family of the Rev, W. H. Hudson, of the Southern Presbyterian 
Mission, Kashing, whose very gracious hospitality we enjoyed on 



WATEK BUFFALO AS DAIRY COWS 133 

two different occasions, the butter made from the milk of two of 
these cows, one- of which, with her calf, is seen in Fig. 64, was used 
on the family table. It was as white as lard or cottolene, but the 
texture and flavour were normal and far better than the Danish 
and New Zealand products served at the hotels. 

The milk produced at the Chinese dairy in Shanghai was being 
sold in bottles holding 2 pounds, at the rate of $1 a bottle, or 43 




Fig. 63. - A dairy herd of water bul'tulo owned bj' a C'hiuesc lariuer wlio wa3 
supplying milk to foreigners in Shanghai. 



cents, gold. This seems high and there may have been misunder- 
standing on the part of my interpreter, but his answer to my 
question was that the milk was being sold at one Shanghai dollar 
per bottle holding one and a half catty, which, interpreted, is the 
value given above. 

But fuel from the stems of cultivated plants which are in part 
otherwise useful, is not sufficient to meet the needs of country 
and village, notwithstanding the intense economies practised. 
Large areas of hill and mountain land are made to contribute their 



134 



THE FUEL PROBLEM 



share, as we have seen in the south of China, where pine boughs 
were being used for firing the lime and cement kihis. At Tsingtao 
we saw the pine bough fuel on the backs of mules (Fig. 65), coming 
from the hills in Shantung province. Similar fuels were being used 
in Korea and we have photographs of large pine bough fuel stacks, 
taken in Japan at Funabashi, east from Tokyo. 

The hill and mountain lands, wherever accessible to the densely 
peopled plains, have long been cut over and as regularly has 
afforestation been encouraged and deliberately secured even 
through the transplanting of nursery stock grown expressly for 




Flu. 64. - Water buffalo and calf, Kashing, Chekiang proviiu 



that purpose. We had read so much regarding the reckless destruc- 
tion of forests in China and Japan and had seen so few old forest 
trees except where these had been protected about temples, graves 
or houses, that when Rev. R. A. Haden, of the Elizabeth Blake 
hospital, near Soochow, insisted that the Chinese were deliberate 
foresters and that they regularly grow trees for fuel, transplanting 
them when necessary to secure a close and early stand, after the 
area had been cleared, we were so much surprised that he gener- 
ously volunteered to accompany us westward on a two days 
journey into the hill country where the practice could be seen. 
A family owning a houseboat and living upon it was engaged 
for the journey. This family consisted of a recently widowed 



LOANS AND INTEREST 



135 



father, his two sons, newly married, and a helper. They were to 
transport us and provide sleeping quarters for myself, Mr. Haden 
and a cook for the consideration of $300, Mexican, per day and 
to continue the journey through the night, leaving the day for 
observation in the hills. 

The recent funeral had cost the father $100 Mex., the wedding 
of the two sons $50 each, while the remodelling of the house-boat 
to meet the needs of the new family relations cost still another 




Fio. 05. —Pine bougli fuel nomine into Tsint/tiio imni tlic Sijiuili 



$100. To meet these expenses it had been necessary to borrow 
the full amount, $300. On $100 the father was paying 20 per 
cent interest; on $50 he was compelled to pay 50 per cent interest. 
The balance he had borrowed from friends without interest but 
with the understanding that he would return the favour should 
occasion be required. 

Rev. A. E. Evans informed us that it is a common practice in 
China for neighbours to help one another in times of great financial 
stress. This is one of the methods: A neighbour may need 8,000 
cash. He prepares a feast and sends invitations to a hundred 



136 



THE FUEL PKOBLEM 



friends. They know there has been no death in his family and 
that there is no wedding, still it is understood that he is in need of 
money. The feast is prepared at a small expense, the invited 
guests come, each bringing eighty cash as a present. The recipient 
is expected to keep a careful record of contributing friends and to 
repay the sum. Another method is like this: For some reason a 




Fio. 



66. - Residence houseboat used by family for carrying passengers on rivers 
and canals, China. 



man needs to borrow 20,000 cash. He proposes to twenty of his 
friends that they organize a club to raise this sum. If the friends 
agree each pays 1,000 cash to the organizing member.' The balance 
of the club draw lots as to which member shall be number two, 
three, four, five, etc., designating the order in which repayments 
shall be made. The man borrowing the money is then under 
obligation to see that these pajnnents are paid in full at the 



FUEL FKOM THE HILLS 137 

times agreed upon. Not infrequently a small rate of interest 
is charged. 

Rates of interest are very high in China, especially on small sums 
where securities are not the best. Mr. Evans informs me that 2 
per cent per month is low, and 30 per cent per annum is very 
commonly collected. Such obligations are often never met, but 
they do not outlaw and may descend from father to son. 

The boat cost $292.40 in U.S. currency; the yearly earning was 
$107.50 to $120.40. The funeral cost $43, and $43 more was re- 
quired for the wedding of the two sons. They were receiving for 
the services of six people $1*29 per day. An engagement for two 
weeks or a month could have been made for materially lower 
rates and their average daily earning, on the basis of 300 days 
service in the year, and the $120.40 total earning, would be only 
40.13 cents, less than 7 cents each. Hence their trip with us was 
two of their banner days. Foreigners in Shanghai and other cities 
frequently engage such houseboat service for two weeks or a 
month of travel on the canals and rivers, finding it a very enjoyable 
as well as inexpensive way of having a picnic outing. 

On reaching the hill lands the next morning there were such 
scenes as shown in Fig. 67, where the strips of tree growth, varying 
from two to ten years, stretched directly up the slope, often in 
strong contrast on account of the straight boundaries and different 
ages of the timber. Some of these long narrow holdings were less 
than 2 rods wide and on one of these only recently cut, up which 
we walked for a considerable distance, the young pine were spring- 
ing up in goodly numbers. As many as eighteen young trees were 
counted on a width of 6 feet across the strip of 30 feet wide. On 
this area everything had been recently cut clean. Even stumps 
and the large roots were dug and saved for fuel. 

In Fig. 68 are seen bundles of fuel from such a strip, just brought 
into the village, the boughs retaining the leaves although the fuel 
had been dried. The roots, too, are tied in with the limbs so that 
everything is saved. On our walk to the hills we passed many 
people bringing their loads of fuel swinging from carrying poles 
on their shoulders. 

Inquiries regarding the afforestation of these strips of hillside 
showed that the extensive digging necessitated by the recovery 
of the roots usually caused new trees to spring up quickly as 



138 



THE FUEL PROBLEM 




Fio. 67. - Forest cutting in narrow strips on steep hillsides west of Soochow. 




Flu. 68. - Bundles of pine and oak bough fuel gathered on the hill lands west 
of Soochow, Kiangsu. 



GRASS AND STRAW FUEL 



139 



rolunteers from scattered seed and from the roots, so that planting 
was not generally required. Talking with a group of people as to 
where we could see some of the trees used for replanting the hill- 
sides, a lad of seven years was first to understand and volunteered 
to conduct us to a planting. This he did and was overjoyed on 
receipt of a trifle for his services. One of these little pine nurseries 
is seen in Fig. 69, many being planted in suitable places through 
the woods. The lad led us to two such locations with whose 




Fia. G9. - Tiny nursery of email pines growing among ferns in a shady wood, for 
replanting cut-over hillsides. 



whereabouts he was evidently very familiar, although they were 
considerable distances from the path and far from home. These 
small trees are used in filling in places where the volunteer growtli 
has not been sufficiently close. A strong herbaceous growth 
usually springs up quickly on these newly cleared lands and this 
too is cut for fuel or for use in making compost or as green manure. 
The grass which grows on the grave lands, if not fed off, is also 
cut and saved for fuel. We saw several instances of this outside 
Shanghai, one where a mother with her daughter, provided with 



uo 



THE FUEL PROBLEM 



rake, sickle, basket and bag, were gatliering the dry stubble and 
grass of the previous season from the grave lands where there was 
less than could be found on our closely mowed meadows. In Fig. 
70 may be seen a man who has just returned with such a load, 
and in his hand is the typical rake of the Far East, made by 
simply bending bamboo splints, claw-shape, and securing them as 
seen in the ensraviug. 




70. - Dried grass fuel gatlierod 



ands, Slianghai. 



In the Shantung province, in Chihli and in Manchuria, millet 
stems, especially those of the great kaoliang or sorghum, are 
extensively used for fuel and for building as well as- for screens, 
fences and matting. At Mukden the kaoliang was selling as fuel 
at $2.70 to $3.00, Mexican, for a 100-bundle load of stalks, weigh- 
ing 7 catty to the bundle. The yield per acre of kaoliang fuel 
amounts to 5,600 pounds and the stalks are 8 to 12 feet long, so 



WOOD AND CHARCOAL 



141 



that when carried on the backs of mules or horses the animals 
are nearly hidden by the load. The price paid for plant stem fuel 
from agricultural crops, in different parts of China and Japan, 
ranged from $1.30 to $2.85, U.S. currency, per ton. The price of 
anthracite coal at Nanking was $7.7G per ton. Taking the weight 
of dry oak wood at 3,500 pounds per cord, the plant stem fuel, 
for equal weight, was selling at $2.28 to $5.00. 




Yit.. 71. - Biiri'llf-H (if IvaoliiiMi/ fiif-l rxirnidtr hit') Kiflocliow market, .Slninfiing. 



Large amounts of wood are converted into charcoal in these 
countries and sent to market baled in rough matting, or in basket- 
work cases woven from small brush and holding 2 to 2| bushels. 
When such wood is not converted into charcoal it is sawed into 
1- or 2-foot lengths, split and marketed tied in bundles. 

Along the Mukden-Antung railway in Manchuria fuel was also 
being shipped in 4-foot lengths, in the form of cordwood. In Korea 



142 THE FUEL PROBLEM 

caltlc were provided Avith a peculiar saddle for carryiDg wood in 
4-foot sticks laid blanket-fashion over the animal, extending far 
down on their sides. As in most parts of China where we visited, 
the tree growth over the hills was generally scattering and thin 
on the ground wherever there was not individual ownership in 
small holdings. Under and among the scattering pine there were 
oak in many cases, but these were always small, evidently of not 
more than two or three years' standing, and appearing to have 
been repeatedly cut back. It was in Korea that we saw so many 
instances of young leafy oak boughs brought to the rice fields and 
used as green manure. 

There was abundant evidence of periodic cutting between 
Mukden and Antung in Manchuria; between Wiju and Fusan in 
Korea; and throughout most of our journey in Japan - from 
Nagasaki to Moji and from Shimonoseki to Yokohama. In all of 
these countries afforestation takes place quickly and the cuttings 
on private holdings are made once in ten, twenty or twenty-five 
years. When the wood is sold to those coming for it the receivers 
pay at the rate of 40 sen per one-horse load of 40 kan, or 330 
pounds, such as is seen in Fig. 72, Director Ono, of the Akashi 
Experiment station, informed us that such fuel loads in that 
prefecture, where the wood is cut once in ten years, bring returns 
amounting to about $40 per acre, for the ten-year crop. This 
land was worth $40 per acre, but when they are suitable for orange 
groves they sell for $600 per acre. Mushroom culture is extensively 
practised under the shade of some of these wooded areas, yielding 
under favourable conditions at the rate of $100 per acre. 

The forest-covered area in Japan, exclusive of Formosa and 
Karafuto, amounts to a total of 54,196,728 acres, less than 
20,000,000 of which are in private holdings, the balance belonging 
to the state and to the Imperial Crown. 

In all these countries there has been an extensive general use 
of materials other than wood for building purposes ; and very 
many of the substitutes for lumber are products grown on the 
cultivated fields. The use of rice straw for roofing, as seen in the 
Hakone village, Fig. 7, is very general throughout the rice-growing 
districts, and even the sides of houses may be similarly thatched, 
as was observed in the Canton delta region, such a construction 
being warm for winter and cool for summer. The life of these 



TILE AND THATCH ROOFS 



143 



thatched roofs, however, is short and they must be renewed as 
often as every three to five years, but the old straw is highly prized 
as fertilizer for the fields on which it is grown, or it may serve as 
fuel, the ashes only going to the fields. 

Burned clay tile, especially for the cities and public buildings, 
are very extensively used for roofing, clay being abundant and 
near at hand. In Chihli and in Manchuria millet and sorghum 




Fig. 72. - Japanese fuel coining down from the woodetl hills. 



stems, used alone or plastered, as in Fig. 73, with a mud mortar, 
sometimes mixed with lime, cover the roofs of vast numbers of 
the dwellings outside the larger cities. 

At Chiao Tou in Manchuria we saw the building of the thatched 
millet roofs and the use of kaoliang stems instead of timber. 
Rafters were set in the usual way and covered with a layer about 
2 inche? thick of the long kaoliang stems stripped of their leaves 
and tops. These were tied together and to the rafters with twine, 
thus forming a sort of matting. A layer of thin clay mortar was 
then spread over the surface and well trowelled imtil it began 



144 



THE FUEL PEOBLEM 



to show on the under side. Over this was applied a thatch of small 
millet stems bound in bundles 8 inches thick, cut square across 
the butts to 18 inches in length. They were dipped in water and 
laid in courses after the manner of shingles, but the butts of the 
stems were driven forward to a slope which obliterated the shoul- 
der, making the courses invisible. In the better houses this 
thatching may be plastered with earth mortar or with an earth- 
lime mortar, which is less liable to wash in heavy rain. 

The walls of the house we saw building were also sided with 
the long, large kaoliang stems. An ordinary frame with posts 




Fig. 73. - Millot-thatchcd roof.s plastered with earth; mud clinnncys; wall.s of 
houses phistered with mud, and winter storage pits for vegetables built of 
clay and chaff mortar. 



and girts about 3 feet apart had been erected, on sills and with 
plates carrying the roof. Standing vertically against the girts 
and tied to them, forming a close layer, were the kaoliang stems. 
These were plastered outside and in with a layer of thin earth 
mortar. A similar layer of stems, set up on the inside of the girts 
and similarly plastered, formed the inner face of the wall of the 
house, leaving dead air spaces between the girts. 

Bricks made from earth and dried in the sun (Fig. 74) are very 
extensively used for house building, with chaff and short straw 
as a binding material. A house in the process of building, where 



EARTH BRICKS 



145 



bricks of this kind were being used, is seen in Fig. 75. The 
foundation of the dwelling, it will be observed, was laid with 
well-formed hard-burnt bricks, these being necessary to prevent 
capillary moisture from the ground being drawn up and soften- 
ing the earth brick. 

Several kilns for burning brick, built of clay and earth, were 
passed in our journey up the Pei ho, and stacked about them, 
covering an area of more than 800 feet back from the river, were 
bundles of the kaoliang stems to serve as fuel in the kilns. 




Fia. 74. - Air-dried earth brick for house building. 



The extensive use of the unburnt brick is necessitated by the 
difficulty of obtaining fuel, and various methods are adopted to 
reduce the number of burnt bricks required in construction. One 
of these devices is shown in Fig. 64, where the city wall surround- 
ing Kashing is constructed of alternate courses of four layers of 
burnt bricks separated by layers of simple sun-dried bricks. 

In addition to the multiple-function farm-grown crops used 
for food, fuel and building material, there is a large acreage 
devoted to the growing of textile and fibre products, of which enor- 



146 



THE FUEL PROBLEM 



mous quantities are produced annually. In Japan, where some 
50 millions of people are chiefly fed on the produce of little more 
than 21,000 square miles of cultivated land, there was growTi in 
1906 more than 75,500,000 pounds of cotton, hemp, flax and China 
grass textile stock, occupying 76,700 acres of the cultivated land. 
On 141,000 acres there grew 115,000,000 pounds of paper mulberry 
and Mitsumata, materials used in the manufacture of paper. From 
still another 14,000 acres were taken 92,000,000 pounds of matting 
stuff, while more than 957,000 acres were occupied by mulberry 




Fig. 75. 



Foundation of dwelling, consisting of hard-burnt brick; balance of 
wall to be sun-dried earth brick, seen in Fig. 74. 



trees for the feeding of silkworms, yielding to Japan 22,389,798 
pounds of silk. Here are more than 300,000,000 pounds of fibre 
and textile stuff taken from 1,860 square miles of the cultivated 
land, cutting down the food-producing area to 19,263 square 
miles; and this area is made still smaller by devoting 123,000 
acres to tea, producing in 1906 58,900,000 pounds, worth nearly 
$5,000,000. Nor do these statements express the full measure 
of the producing power of the 21,321 square miles -of cultivated 
land, for, in addition to the food and other materials named, 
$2,365,000 worth of braid were made from straw and wood 
shavings; $6,000,000 worth of rice straw bags, packing cases and 



TEXTILE PRODUCTS IN JAPAN 147 

matting; and $1,085,000 worth of wares from bamboo, willow and 
vine. As illustrating the intense home industry of these people, we 
may consider the fact that the 5,453,309 households of farmers 
in Japan produced in 1906, in their homes as subsidiary work, 
120,527,000 worth of manufactured articles. If correspondingly 
exact statistical data were available from China and Korea a 
similarly full utilization of cultural possibilities would be revealed 
there. 




Fig. 76. 



Earth and clay brick kiln on the bank of the Pei-ho, using sorghum 
stems for fuel. 



This marvellous heritage of economy, industry and thrift, bred 
of the stress of centuries, must not be permitted to lose virility 
through contact with western wasteful practices, now exalted to 
seeming virtues through the dazzling brilliancy of mechanical 
achievements. More and more must labour be dignified in all 
homes alike, and economy, industry and thrift become inherited 
impulses, compelling and satisfying. 

Cheap, rapid, long-distance transportation, already well started 
in these countries, will bring with it a fuller utilization of the large 



148 THEFUELPROBLEM 

stores of coal and mineral wealth and of the enormous available 
water-power, and as a result there will come some temporary 
lessening of the stress for fuel and, with better forest management, 
some relief along the lines of building materials. But the time is 
not a century distant when, throughout the world, a fuller, better 
development must take place along the lines of these far-reaching 
and fundamental practices so long and so effectively followed by 
the Mongolian races in China, Korea and Japan. When the enor- 
mous water-power of these countries has been harnessed and 
brought into the foot-hills and down upon the margins of the 
valleys and plains in the form of electric current, let it, if possible, 
be so distributed as to become available in country village homes 
to lighten the burden and lessen human drudgery. If this is done 
the efficiency of the human effort now so well bestowed upon 
subsidiary manufactures under the guidance and initiative of the 
home will be increased, and it will be possible for children to grow 
up to manhood and womanhood under the best conditions pos- 
sible, rather than in enormous congested factories. 



VIII 
TRAMPS AFIELD 

ON March 31st we took the 8 a.m. train on the Shanghai- 
Nanking railway for Kunshan, situated 32 miles west from 
Shanghai, to spend the day walking in the fields. The fare, second 
class, was 80 cents, Mexican. A third-class ticket would have been 
40 cents, and a first class $1 .60, practically two cents, one cent and 
half a cent, U.S. currency, per mile. The second-class fare to 
Nanking, a distance of 193 miles, was $1.72, U.S. currency, or a 
little less than 1 cent per mile. While the car seats were not 
upholstered, the service was good. Meals were served on the 
train in either foreign or Chinese style, and tea, coffee or hot water 
to drink. Hot, wet face-cloths were regularly passed round and 
many Chinese daily newspapers were sold on the train. 

In the vicinity of Kunshan a large area of farm land had been 
acquired by the French Catholic Mission at a purchase price of 
$40, Mexican, per mow, or at the rate of $103.20 per acre. 

It was here that we first saw, at close range, the details of using 
canal mud as a fertilizer, so extensively applied in China. Walking 
through the fields we came upon the scene illustrated in the middle 
section of Fig. 77, where, close on the right, was such a reservoir 
as seen in Fig. 48. Men were in it, dipping up the mud which 
had accumulated over its bottom, and pouring it on the bank in a 
field of Windsor beans. The thin mud was then over 2 feet deep 
at that side and flowing into the beans, where it had already spread 
2 rods, burying the plants as the engraving shows. When suffi- 
ciently dry to be readily handled this would be spread among the 
beans, as shown in the upper section of the illustration. Here four 
men were distributing such mud, which had dried, between the 
rows, not to fertilize the beans, but for a succeeding crop of cotton 
soon to be planted between the rows, before the latter were har- 
vested. The owner of this piece of land, with whom we talked and 
who was superintending the work, stated that his usual yield of 
these beans was 300 catty per mow and that they sold them green, 
shelled, at 2 cents, IMexican, per catty. At this price and yield 
his return would be $15.48, gold, per acre. If there was need of 
nitrogen and organic matter in the soil the vines would be pulled 

149 



150 



TRAMPS AFIELD 




Fio. 77. — In the lower section, along the path, basketfuls of canal mud had been 
applied in two rows at the rate of more than 100 tons per acre. In the middle 
section, workmen just beyond the extreme right were removing mud from 
such a reservoir as is seen in Fig. 48. The upper section shows three men dis- 
tributing canal mud between the rows of a field of Windsor beans. 



FERTILIZING WITH CANAL MUD 151 

green, after picking the beans, and composted with the wet mud. 
If not so needed, the dried stems would be tied in bundles and sold 
as fuel, or used as fuel at home and the ashes returned to the fields. 
The Windsor beans are thus an early crop grown for fertilizer and 
fuel as well as for food. 

This farmer was paying his labourers 100 cash per day and 
providing their meals, which he estimated worth 200 cash more, 
making 12 cents, gold, for a ten-hour day. Judging from what 
we saw and from the amount of mud carried per load, we estimated 
the men would distribute not less than eighty-four loads of 80 
pounds each per day, an average distance of 500 feet, making the 
cost 3-57 cents, gold, per ton for distribution. 

The lower section of Fig. 77 shows mud being used on a narrow 
strip bordering the path along which we walked. The amount 
shown in the illustration had been brought more than 400 feet 
by one man before 10 a.m. on the morning the photograph was 
taken. He was getting it from the bottom of a canal 10 feet deep, 
laid bare by the outgoing tide. Already he had brought more than 
a ton to his field. 

The carrying baskets used for this work were in the form of 
huge dustpans suspended from the carrying poles by two cords 
attached to the side rims, and steadied by the hand grasping a 
handle provided in the back for this purpose as well as for empty- 
ing the baskets by tipping. With this construction the earth was 
readily raked upon the basket^ and very easily emptied from it. 
No arrangement could be more expeditious or inexpensive for 
this man with his small holding. In such simple manner has nearly 
all the earth been moved in digging the miles of canal and in 
building the long sea walls. In Shanghai we saw the mud which is 
carried through the storm sewers into Soochow creek being 
removed in the same manner during the intervals when the tide 
was out. 

In still another field (Fig. 78) canal mud had been applied at 
a rate exceeding 70 tons per acre, and we were told that such 
dressings would be repeated as often as every two years if other 
and cheaper fertilizers could be obtained. In the lower portion of 
Fig. 78 may be seen the section of canal from which this mud 
was taken up the three earthen stairways built of the mud itself. 
Many such lines of stairway were seen during our trips along the 



152 



TRAMPS AFIELD 



canals. To facilitate collecting the mud from the shallow canals 
temporary dams are thrown across them at two places and the 
water between the dams scooped or pumped out, laying the botton 
bare. The earth of the large grave mound seen across a canal in 









'^^' Iz^--^ <^*- ^ ■ -^'^ 















if.."^- L'*' *i' 



.'^; , ■ '■ ^' 




Fig. 78. - Section of field covered with piles of canal mud recently applied at the 
rate of more than 70 tons per acre; taken out of the canal up the three flights 
of earth steps shown in the lower part of the figure. 



the centre background of the upper portion of the engraving had 
been collected in this manner. 

In the Chekiang province canal mud is extensively used in the 
mulberry orchards as a surface dressing. We have referred to this 



EXCHANGE OF SOIL 153 

practice in southern China, and Fig. 79 is a view taken south of 
Kashing early in April. The boat anchored in front of the mulberry 
orchard is the home of a family coming from a distance, seeking 
employment during the season for picking mulberry leaves to feed 
silkworms. We were much surprised, on looking back at the 
boat after closing the camera, to see the head of the family stand- 
ing erect in the centre, having shoved back a section of the matting 
roof. 

The dressing of mud applied to this field formed a loose layer 
more than two inches deep, and when compacted by the rains 
which would follow would add not less than a full inch of soil over 
the entire orchard. The weight per acre could not be less than 
120 tons. 

Another equally, or even more, laborious practice followed by 
the Chinese farmers in this province is the periodic exchange of 
soil between mulberry orchards and the rice fields, their experience 
being that soil long used in the mulberry orchards improves the 
rice, while soil from the rice fields is very helpful when applied 
to the mulberry orchards. We saw many instances, when travel- 
ling by boat-train between Shanghai, Kashing and Hangchow, of 
soil being carried from rice fields and either stacked on the 
banks or dropped into the canal. Such soil was oftenest taken 
from narrow trenches leading through the fields. It is our judg- 
ment that the soil thrown into the canals undergoes important 
changes - perhaps through the absorption of soluble plant-food 
substances, such as lime, phosphoric acid and potash, withdrawn 
from the water, or through some growth or fermentation - which, 
in the judgment of the farmer, make the large labour involved 
in this procedure worth while. The stacking of soil along the banks 
was probably in preparation for its removal by boat to some of the 
mulberry orchards. 

It is clearly recognized by the farmers that mud collected 
from those sections of the canal leading through country villages, 
such as that seen in Fig. 8, is both inherently more fertile and in 
better physical condition than that collected in the open country. 
They attribute this difference to the effect of the village washing 
in the canal, where soap is extensively used. The storm waters of 
the city doubtless carry some fertilizing material also, although 
sewage, as such, never finds its way into the canals. The washing 



154 



TRAMPS AFIELD 




SNAILS USED AS FOOD 155 

would be very likely to have a decided flocculating effect and so 
render the material more friable when applied to the field. 

One very important advantage which comes to the fields when 
heavily dressed with such mud is the addition of lime which has 
become incorporated with the silts through their flocculation and 
precipitation, as well as that which is added in the form of snail 
shells abounding in the canals. The amount of the latter may be 
realized from the large number of shells contained in the mud 
recently thrown out, as seen in the upper section of Fig. 80, where 
the pebbly appearance of the surface is due to this cause. In the 
lower section of the same illustration the white spots are snail 
shells exposed in the soil of a recently spaded field. The shells are 
by no means as numerous generally as here seen, but they are 
sufficient to maintain the supply of lime. 

Several species of these snails are collected in quantities and 
used as food. Piles containing bushels of the empty shells were 
seen along the canals outside the villages. The snails are cooked 
in the shell and often sold by measure to be eaten from the hand, 
as we buy roasted peanuts or pop-corn. When a purchase is made 
the vender chps the spiral point from each shell with a pair of 
small shears. This admits air and permits the snail to be readily 
removed by suction when the lips are applied to the shell. In the 
canals there are also large numbers of freshwater eels, shrimps and 
crabs as well as fish, all of which are collected and used for human 
food. It is common, when walking through the canal country, to 
come upon groups of gleaners busy in the bottoms of the shallow 
agricultural canals, gathering anything which may serve as food, 
even including small bulbs or the fleshy roots of edible aquatic 
plants. To facilitate the collection of such food materials, sections 
of the canal are often drained in the manner already described, so 
that gleaning may be done by hand, wading in the mud. Families 
living in house -boats make a business of fishing for shrimp. They 
trail behind the house-boat one or two other boats carrying hun- 
dreds of shrimp-traps, cleverly constructed in such a manner that 
when they are trailed along the bottom the shrimps dart into holes 
in the trap, mistaking them for safe hiding-places. 

Travel between Shanghai and Hangchow at times is very heavy. 
Trains of six or more house-boats, each towed by a steam launch, 
are run by various companies and are daily crowded with passen- 



156 



TRAMPS AFIELD 



gers. Our train left Shanghai at 4.30 p.m., and reached Hangchow 
at 5.30 p.m. the following day, covering a distance of more than 
117 miles. We paid $5.16, gold, for the exclusive use of a first- 




FlO. 80. - Tlie rocfutly rciiiM\-,<l c-.in:il muil.in i lir ii|i|mt src-i nui < .1 i ti.- il liisi ca- 
tion, is heavily cliarged with largo snail shells. Tlic lower section shows the 
shells in the soil of a recently spaded field. 

cabin, five-berth stateroom for myself and interpreter. It occu- 
pied the full width of the boat, except about 14 inches of footway, 
and could be entered from either side down a flight of five steps. 
The berths were flat, naked wooden shelves 30 inches wide, separ- 



HOUSE-BOAT TRAIN 157 

atcd by a partition headboard 6 inches high and without railing 
in front. Each traveller provided his own bedding. A small table 
upon which meals were served, a mirror on one side and a lamp 
on the other, set in an opening in the partition, permitting it to 
serve two cabins, completed the furnishings. The roof of the cabins 
was covered with an awning and divided crosswise into two lines 
of berths, each 30 inches wide, by board partitions 6 inches high. 
In these sections passengers spread their beds, sleeping with their 
heads separated only by a headboard 6 inches high. The awning 
was just high enough to permit passengers to sit erect. Ventilation 
was ample, but privacy was nil. 

Meals were served to each passenger wherever he might be. 
Dinner consisted of hot steamed rice brought in heavy porcelain 
bowls inside a covered hot wooden case. With the rice were tiny 
dishes of green clover, nicely cooked and seasoned; of cooked bean 
curd served with shredded bamboo sprouts; of tiny pork strips 
with bean curd; of small bits of liver with bamboo sprouts; and 
of greens. Hot water was provided for tea. There was no table- 
linen, and everything but the tea had to be negotiated with chop- 
sticks or, these failing, with the fingers. When the meal was 
finished the table was cleared and water, hot if desired, was brought 
for your hand-basin, which with tea, tea-cup and bedding, consti- 
tute part of the traveller's outfit. At frequent intervals, up to 
10 p.m., a crier walked about the deck with hot water for those 
who might desire an extra cup of tea, and again in the early 
morning. 

At this season of the year Chinese incubators were being run 
to their full capacity and it was our good fortune to visit one of 
these. The art of incubation is very old and very extensively 
practised in China. An interior view of one of these establish- 
ments is shown in Fig. 81. Here the family were hatching the eggs 
of hens, ducks and geese, purchasing the eggs and selling the 
young as hatched. As in the case of so many trades in China, this 
family was the last generation of a long line whose lives had been 
spent in the same work. We entered through their shop opening 
on the street of the narrow village seen in Fig. 8. In the shop the 
eggs were purchased and the chicks were sold, this work being 
in charge of the women of the family. It was in the extreme 
rear of the home that the incubators were installed, each having a 



158 



TRAMPS AFIELD 



capacity of 1,200 hens' eggs. Four of these may be seen in the 
illustration and one of the baskets which, when two-thirds filled 
with eggs, is set inside of each incubator. 

Each incubator consists of a large earthenware jar with a door 
cut in one side through which live charcoal may be introduced 
and the fire partly smothered under a layer of ashes. The jar is 
thoroughly insulated, cased in basket-work and provided with a 
cover, as seen in the illustration. Inside the outer jar rests a 
second of nearly the same size, as one tea-cup may in another. 
Into this is lowered the large basket with its 600 hens' eggs, 400 




Fia. 81. 



Four Chinese incubators in a room where there are thirty, each having 
a capacity of 1,200 hens' eggs. 



ducks' eggs or 175 geese' eggs, as the case may be. Thirty of 
these incubators were arranged in two parallel rows of fifteen each. 
Immediately above each row, and utilizing the warmth of the air 
rising from them, was a continuous line of finishing hatchers and 
brooders in the form of woven shallow trays with sides warmly 
padded with cotton and with the tops covered with sets of quilts 
of different thickness. It is in these brooder trays that the chicks 
emerge from the shells, and remain till ready to be taken to the 
shop and sold. 

After a basket of hens' eggs has been incubated four days the 
eggs are examined, and those which are infertile are removed before 



INCUBATORS 159 

they have been rendered unsaleable. The infertile eggs go to the 
shop. Ducks' eggs are similarly examined after two days, and 
again after five days' incubation; and geese' eggs after six days and 
again after fourteen days. Through these precautions practically 
all loss from infertile eggs is avoided and from 95 to 98 per cent 
of the fertile eggs are hatchedj the infertile eggs ranging from 5 to 
25 per cent. 

After the fourth day in the incubator all eggs are turned five 
times in twenty-four hours. Hens' eggs are kept in the lower 
incubator eleven days, ducks' eggs thirteen days, and geese' eggs 
sixteen days, after which they are transferred to the trays. 
Throughout the incubation period the most careful watch and 
control is kept over the temperature. Different temperatures are 
maintained during different stages of the incubation. No ther- 
mometer is used, but the operator raises the lid or quilt, removes 
an egg and presses the large end into his eye-socket. In this way 
a large contact is made where the skin is sensitive, nearly constant 
in temperature, but little below blood heat and from which the 
air is excluded for the time. Long practice permits them thus to 
judge small differences of temperature expeditiously and with great 
accuracy. The men sleep in the room and some one is on duty 
continuously, making the rounds of the incubators and brooders, 
examining and regulating each according to its individual needs, 
through the management of the doors or the shifting of the quilts 
over the eggs in the brooder trays. In the finishing trays the eggs 
form rather more than one continuous layer, but the second layer 
does not cover more than a fifth or a quarter of the area. Hens' 
eggs are in these trays ten days, ducks' and geese' eggs fourteen 
days. 

After the chickens have been hatched sufficiently long to require 
feeding they are ready for market, and are then sorted according 
to sex and placed in separate shallow woven trays 30 inches in 
diameter. The sorting is done rapidly and accurately through 
the sense of touch, the operator recognizing the sex by gently 
pinching the anus. Four trays of young chickens were in the shop 
fronting on the street as we entered and several women were 
making purchases, taking five to a dozen each. I was informed 
that nearly every family in the cities and in the country villages 
raise a few, but only a few, chickens,, and it is a common sight to 



160 



TRAMPS AFIELD 



see grown chickens walking about the narrow streets, in and out 
of the open shops, dodging the feet of the occupants and passers- 
by. At the time of our visit this family was paying at the rate of 
10 cents, Mexican, for nine hens' and eight ducks' eggs, and were 
selling their largest strong chickens at 3 cents each. These figures, 
translated into our currency, make the j)urchase price for eggs 
nearly 48 cents, and the selling price for the young chicks $1-29 
per hundred, or thirteen eggs for G cents and seven chickens for 
9 cents. 

It is difficult even to conceive, not to say measure, the vast 




Fig. 82. - Boat-load of 150 baskots of eggs on Soochow crook, Shanfjliai. 

import of this solution of how to maintain, in the millions of 
homes, a constantly accessible supply of absolutely fresh and 
thoroughly sanitary animal food in the form of meat and eggs. 
The great density of population in these countries makes the 
problem of supplying eggs to th(^ people very different from that 
in the United States. Our 250,()00,()00 fowls in 1900 were at the 
rate of three to each person, but in Japan, with her 10,500,000 
fowls, there was in 1900 but one for every three people. The num- 
ber per square mile of cultivated land, however, was 825, while 
in the United States, in 1900, the mnnber of fowls per square 
mile of improved farm land was but 387. To give to Japan three 



EGGS FOR THE MILLIONS 



IGI 



fowls to each person there would need to be an average of about 
nine to each acre of her cultivated land, whereas in the United 
States there were in 1900 nearly two acres of improved farm land 
for each fowl. We have no statistics regarding the number of fowls 
in China or the number of eggs produced, but the total is very large 
and she exports to Japan. The large boat-load of eggs seen in 
Fig. 82 had just arrived from the country, coming into Shanghai 
in one of her canals. 




Flu. 8.'J. - I'^iglit- hnaroFH moving a pile of wintrr if unfi. . i in tlji' rcc(Mit,ly oxcaviitod 
pit in tho Hold seen in Fig. 84. The boat-loud m IIkj foreground ia a mixture 
of manure and ashes just arrived from the home village. 



Besides applying canal mud directly to the fields in the ways 
described there are other very extensive practices of composting it 
with organic matter of one kind or another and of then using the 
compost on the fields. The next three illustrations show some of 
the different stages in the process as well as the tremendous labour 
of body and amount of forethought required. In Fig. 83 eight 
bearers may be seen moving winter compost to a recently 
excavated pit in an adjoining field, shown in Fig. 84. Four 
months before men had brought waste from the stables of 

F.F.C. F 



162 



TEAMPS AFIELD 




MUD AND CLOVEE COMPOST 



163 



Shanghai, a distance of 15 miles by water, deposited it upon 
the canal bank between layers of thin mud dipped from the 
canal, and left it to ferment. The eight men were removing 
this compost to the pit seen in Fig. 85, then nearly filled. Near 
by in the same field was a second pit, shown in Fig. 85, excavated 
3 feet deep and rimmed about with the earth removed, making 
it 2 feet deeper. 

After the pits had been filled the clover which was in blossom 
beyond the pits would be cut and stacked upon them to a height 
of 5 to 8 feet, and this also saturated, layer by layer, with mud 




Fig. 85. - Recently excavated pit for receiving winter compost seen in Fig. 83, 
and upon which the clover beyond the pit will be cut and composted as a 
fertilizer for a crop of rice. 

brought from the canal. It would then be allowed to ferment 
twenty to thirty days, until the juices set free had been absorbed 
by the winter compost beneath, and until the time had arrived 
for fitting the ground for the next crop. This organic matter, 
fermented with the canal mud, would then be distributed by the 
men over the field, carried for the third time on their shoulders, 
notwithstanding its weight amounted to many tons. 

The manure had been collected, loaded and carried 15 miles 
by water; it had been unloaded upon the bank and saturated with 
canal mud; the field had been fitted for clover the previous 
autumn and seeded; the pits had been dug in the fields; the winter 



164 



TRAMPS AFIELD 



compost had been carried and placed in the pits; the clover was 
to be cut, carried by the mon on their shoulders, stacked layer by 
layer and saturated with mud dipped from the canal; the whole 
would later be distributed over the field, and finally the earth 
removed from the pits would be returned to them, that the service 
of no ground upon which a crop might grow should be lost. 

Such are the tasks to which Chinese farmers hold themselves, 
because they are convinced desired results will follow, because 
their holdings are so small and their families so large. These prac- 
tices are so extensive in China and so fundamental in the part they 
play in the maintenance of high productive power in their soils 




Fuj. ht). I'n)\ idin^' tor the buildi 



(I ;niilcl(i\ IT cotiipost sliicli. 



that we made special effort to follow them through dilTerent 
phases. In Fig. 86 we saw the preparation being made to build 
one of the clover compost stacks saturated with canal mud. On 
the left the thin mud had been dipped from the canal. Wayfarers 
in the centre were crossing the foot-bridge of the country by-way. 
Beyond rose the conical thatch to shelter the water buffalo when 
pumping the water for irrigating the rice crop which was to be 
fed with the plant food now in preparation. On the right were 
two large piles of green clover freshly cut. A woman 'of the family 
at one of them was spreading it to receive the mud, while the 
men-folk were coming from the field with more clover on their 
carrying poles. We came upon this scene just before the dinner 
hour and, after the workers had left, another photograph was 



MUD AND CLOVER COMPOST 



165 




166 



TEAMPS AFIELD 



taken at closer range from a different side, giving the view seen 
in Fig. 87. As the mud had been removed some days and become 
too stiff to spread, water was being brought from the canal in the 
pails at the right for reducing its consistency to that of a thin 
porridge, permitting it more completely to smear and saturate 
the clover. The stack grew, layer by layer, each saturated with 
the mud, tramped solid with the bare feet. Provision had been 
made here for building four other stacks. 
Farther along we came upon the scene in Fig. 88, where the 




Fig. 88. — The young man is loadine his boat with canal mud, using the Iong» 
handled clam-shell dredge; which he can open and close at will. 

building of the stack of compost and the gathering of the mud 
from the canal were simultaneous. On one side of the canal the 
son, using a clam-shell shaped dipper made of basket-work, which 
could be opened and shut with a pair of bamboo handles, had 
nearly filled the middle section of his boat with the thin ooze, 
while on the other side, against the stack which was building, 
the mother was emptying a similar boat, with a large dipper, also 
provided with a bamboo handle. The man on the stack is a good 
scale for judging its size. 
We came next upon a finished stack on the bank of another 



A EEMAKKABLE PRACTICE 



1G7 



canal, shown in Fig. 89, where our umbrella was set to serve as a 
scale. This stack measured 10 by 10 feet on the ground, was 6 
feet high and must have contained more than 20 tons of the green 
compost. At the same place, two other stacks had been started, 
each about 14 by 14 feet, and foundations were laid for six others, 
nine in all. 

During twenty or more days this green nitrogenous organic 
matter is permitted to lie fermenting in contact with the fine soil 
particles of the ooze with which it had been charged. This is a 




Fig. 89. — A completed compost stack. 



remarkable practice in that it is a very old, intensive application 
of an important fundamental principle only recently understood 
and added to the science of agriculture, namely, the power of 
organic matter, decaying rapidly in contact with soil, to liberate 
from it soluble plant food. It would be a great mistake, therefore, 
to say that these laborious practices are the result of ignorance, of 
a lack of capacity for accurate thinking, or of power to grasp and 
utilize. If the agricultural lands of the United States are ever 
called upon to feed even 1,200 millions of people, a number pro- 
portionately less than one-half that being fed in Japan to-day, 
very different practices from those now followed will have been 
adopted We can believe they will require less human bodily effort 
and be more efficient. But the knowledge which can make them 



168 TRAMPS AFIELD 

60 is not yet in the possession of our farmers, much less the 
conviction that plant feeding and more persistent and better- 
directed soil management are necessary to such yields as will then 
be required. 

Later, just before the time for transplanting rice, we returned 
to the same district to observe the manner of applying the com- 
post to the field, and Fig. 90 is prepared from photographs then 
taken, illustrating the activities of one family, as seen diu^ing the 
morning of May 28th. Their home was in a near-by village and 
their holding was divided into four nearly rectangular paddy 
fields, graded to water level, separated by raised rims, and having 
an area of nearly two acres. Three of these little fields are partly 
shown in the illustration, and the fourth in Fig. 143. In the back- 
ground of the upper section of Fig. 90, and imder the thatched 
shelter, was a native Chinese cow, blindfolded and hitched to the 
power-wheel of a large wooden-chain pump, lifting water from 
the canal and flooding the field in the foreground, to soften the soil 
for ploughing. Riding on the power- wheel was a girl of some twelve 
years, another of seven and a baby. They were there for enter- 
tainment and to see that the cow kept at work. The ground had 
been sufficiently softened and the father had begun ploughing, 
the cow sinking to her knees as she walked. In the same paddy 
field, but shown in the section below, a boy was spreading the 
clover compost with his hands, taking care that it was finely 
divided and evenly scattered. He had been once around before 
the ploughing began. The compost had been brought from a stack 
by the side of a canal, and two other men were busy, still bringing 
the material to one of the other paddy fields, one of whom, with 
his baskets on the carrying pole, appears in the third section. 
Between these two paddy fields was the one seen at the bottom 
of the illustration, which had matured a crop of rape that had been 
pulled and was lying in swaths ready to be moved. Two other 
men were busy here, gathering the rape into large bundles and 
carrying it to the village home, where the women were threshing 
out the seed, taking care not to break the stems, which, after 
threshing, were tied into bundles for fuel. The seed would be 
ground and from it an oil expressed, while the cake would be used 
as a fertilizer. 

This crop of rape is remarkable for the way it fits into the 



PREPARING FOR THE RICE 169 




Fio. 90. -The activities of a family, fertilizing and' fitting paddy fields for rice. 



170 TEAMPS AFIELD 

economies of these people. It is a near relative of mustard and 
cabbage and it grows rapidly during the cooler portions of the 
season, as the spring crop ripens before the planting of rice and 
cotton. Its young shoots and leaves are succulent, nutritious, 
readily digested and extensively used as human food, either boiled 
and eaten fresh, or salted for winter use, to be served with rice. 
The matiu-e stems, being woody, make good fuel, and it bears a 
heavy crop of seed, rich in oil, extensively used for lighting and 
cooking, while the rape-seed cake is highly prized as a manure and 
extensively used. In the early spring the country is luxuriantly 
green with the large acreage of rape, later changing to a sea of most 
brilliant yellow and finally to an ashy grey when the leaves fall 
and the stems and pods ripen. 

Like the dairy cow, rape produces a fat, in the ratio of about 40 
pounds of oil to 100 pounds of seed, which may be eaten, burned 
or sold without materially robbing the soil of its fertility, provided 
that the cake and the ashes from the stems are returned to the 
fields, for the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen of which the oil is 
almost wholly composed come from the atmosphere rather than 
from the soil. 



IX 

THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

ONE of the most remarkable agricultural practices adopted by 
any civilized people is the centuries-long and wellnigh uni- 
versal conservation of all human waste in China, Korea and Japan, 
and its utilization in the maintenance of soil fertility and in the 
production of food. To understand this evolution, it must be 
recognized that mineral fertilizers so extensively employed in 
modern Western agriculture, like the extensive use of mineral coal, 
had been a physical impossibility to all people alike until within 
very recent years. With this fact must be associated the very long 
unbroken life of Eastern nations and the vast numbers their 
farmers have been compelled to feed. 

When we reflect upon the depleted fertility of our own older 
farm lands, comparatively few of which have seen a century's 
service, and the enormous quantity of mineral fertilizers which are 
being applied annually to them in order to secure paying yields, 
it is evident that the time has come when profound consideration 
should be given to the practices the Mongolian race has maintained 
through many centuries. 

From the analyses of mixed human excreta made by Wolff in 
Europe and by Kellner in Japan, it appears that, as an average, 
these carry in every 2,000 pounds 12-7 pounds of nitrogen, 4 
pounds of potassium and 1-7 pounds of phosphorus. On this basis 
and that of Carpenter, who estimates the average amount of excreta 
per day for the adult at 40 ounces, the average annual production 
per million of adult population is 5,794,300 pounds of nitrogen, 
1,825,000 pounds of potassium, and 775,600 pounds of phosphorus 
carried in 456,250 tons of excreta. The figures which Hall cites in 
Fertilizers and Manures would make these amounts 7,940,000 
pounds of nitrogen, 3,070,500 pounds of potassium, and 1,965,600 
pounds of phosphorus, but the figures he takes and calls high 
averages give 12,000,000 of nitrogen, 4,151,000 pounds of potas- 
sium, and 3,057,600 pounds of phosphorus. 

In 1908 the International Concessions of the city of Shanghai 
sold to one Chinese contractor for $31,000, gold, the privilege of 
collecting 78,000 tons of human waste, and of removing it to the 

171 



172 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 



country for sale to farmers. The flotilla of boats seen in Fig. 91 
is one of several engaged daily in Shanghai throughout the year 
in this service. 

Dr. Kawaguchi, of the National Department of Agriculture and 
Commerce, taking his data from their records, informed us that 
the human manure saved and applied to the fields of Japan in 
1908 amounted to 23,850,295 tons, which is an average of 1-75 
tons per acre of their 21,321 square miles of cultivated land in the 
four main islands. 



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FlO. 91. -A flotilla of manure boats on Soochovv creek, collecting human 
wastes in the city of Shanghai, for removal to cultivated fields. 

On the basis of the data of Wolff, Kellner and Carpenter, or of 
Hall, the people of the United States and of Europe are pouring 
into the sea, lakes or rivers, and into the underground waters, from 
5,794,300 to 12,000,000 pounds of nitrogen, 1,881,900 to 4,151 ,000 
pounds of potassium, and 777,200 to 3,057,000 pounds of phos- 
phorus per million of adult population annually, and this waste 
we esteem one of the great achievements of our civilization. In 
the Far East, for more than thirty centuries, these enormous 
wastes have been religiously saved, and to-day the 400 millions of 



NIGHT SOIL 



173 



ftdult population send back to their fields annually 150,000 tons 
of phosphorus, 376,000 tons of potassium, and 1,158,000 tons of 
nitrogen comprised in a gross weight exceeding 182,000,000 tons. 
They are gathered from every home, alike in country villages and in 




Fio. 92. - Map of country surrounding Shanghai, showing a few of the many 
canals on which the waste of the city is conveyed by boat to the farms. 



great cities like Hankow- Wuchang-Hanyang with their 1,770,000 
people swarming on a land area delimited by a radius of 4 
miles. 

Man is the most extravagant accelerator of waste the world 
has ever endured. His withering blight has fallen upon every living 



174 THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

thing within his reach, himself not excepted; and his besom of 
destruction in the uncontrolled hands of a generation has swept 
into the sea soil-fertility which only c(>nturies of life could accumu- 
late - fertility which is the substratum of all that is living. It 
must be recognized that the phosphate deposits which we are 
beginning to return to our fields are but measures of fertility lost 
from older soils, and indices of processes still in progress. The 
rivers of North America are estimated to carry to the sea more 
than 500 tons of phosphorus with each cubic mile of water. To 
such loss modern civilization is adding that of hydraulic sewage 
disposal, through which the waste of 500 millions of people might 
be more than 191,300 tons of phosphorus annually, a waste which 
could not be replaced by 1,295,000 tons of rock phosphate, 75 
per cent pure. The Mongolian races, with a population now ap- 
proaching the figure named; occupying an area little more than 
one-half that of the United States, tilling less than 800,000 square 
miles of land, and much of this during twenty, thirty or perhaps 
forty centuries; unable to avail themselves of mineral fertilizers, 
could not tolerate such waste and survive. Compelled to solve the 
problem of avoiding such wastes, and exercising the faculty which 
is characteristic of the race, they 'cast down their buckets where 
they were,' as 

^ A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly 
vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a sig- 
nal, 'Water, water; we die of thirst!' The answer from the friendly 
vessel at once came back, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' 
A second time the signal, 'Water, water; Send us water!' ran up 
from the distressed vessel, and was answered, 'Cast down your 
bucket where you are.' And a third and fourth signal for water 
was answered, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' The cap- 
tain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast 
down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh sparkling water from 
the mouth of the Amazon river. 

Not even in great cities like Canton, biiilt in the meshes of tide- 
swept rivers and canals; like Hankow on the banks of one of the 
largest rivers in the world; nor yet in mod(>rn Shanghai, Yokohama 
or Tokio is such waste permitted. To them such a practice would 
* Booker T. Washington, Atlanta address. 



CHINESE HYGIENE 175 

have meant race suicide, and they have resisted the temptation 
so long that it has ceased to exist. 

Dr. Arthur Stanley, Health Officer of the city of Shanghai, in 
his annual report for 1899, considering tliis sid)j('cfc as a municipal 
problem, wrote: 

'Regarding the bearing on the sanitation of Shanghai of the 
relationship between l^jastcTn and Western hygiene, it may be 
said, that if prolonged national life is ijidicativc of sound sanita- 
tion, the Chinese are a race worthy of study by all who concern 
themselves with Public Health. Even without the returns of a 
Registrar-Ceneral it is evident that in China the birth-rate must 
very consideral)ly exceed the death-rate, and have done so in an 
average way during the three or four thousand years that the 
Chinese nation has existed. Chinese hygiene, when compared 
with mediaeval English, appears to advantage. The main problem 
of sanitation is to cleanse the dwelling day by day, and if this 
can be don(! at a ])rolit so much th(; better. VVliili^ the ultra- 
civilized Western elaborates destructors for burning garbage at a 
financial loss and turns sewage into the sea, the Chinaman uses 
both for manure. He wastes nothing while the sacred duty of 
agriculture is u|)i)crmost in liis mind. And in niality recent 
l)acterial work has shown that ficcal matter and house refuse are 
best destroyed by returning them to ch;an soil, wluin; natural 
purification takes place. The question of destroying garbage can, 
I think, under present conditions in Shanghai, be answered in a 
decided negative. While to adopt tlu; water-carriag(^ system for 
sewage and turn it into the river, whence the water supj)ly is de- 
rived, would be an act of sanitary suicide. It is b(!st, therefore, 
to make use of what is good in Chinese hygiene, which demands 
respect, being, as it is, the product of an evolution extending 
from more than a thousand years before the Christian era.' 

The storage of such waste in China is largely in stoneware 
receptacles, such as are seen in Fig. 93, which are liard-burned, 
glazed terra-cotta urns, having capacities ranging from 500 to 
1,000 pounds. Japan more often uses sheltered cement-lined pits 
such as are seen in Fig. 94. 

In the three countries the carrying to the fields is most often 
in some form of pail, as seen in Fi^;. 95, a pair of which are borne 



176 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 



swinging from the carrying pole. In applying the liquid to the 
field or garden the long-handled dipper is used, seen in Fig. 96. 
We are begimiing to husband with some economy the waste 
from our domestic animals, but in this we do not approach that 
of China, Korea and Japan. People in China regularly search 
for and collect droppings along the country and caravan roads. 
Repeatedly, when walking through city streets, we observed such 
materials quickly and apparently eagerly gathered, to be carefully 




Fio. 93. - Receptacles for humun wusto. 

stored under conditions which ensure small loss from either leach- 
ing or unfavourable fermentation. In some mulberry orchards the 
earth had been carefully hoed back about the trunks of trees to 
a depth of 3 or 4 inches from a circle having a diameter of 6 to 8 
feet, and upon these areas were placed the droppings of silkworms, 
the moulted skins, together with the bits of leaves and stem left 
after feeding. Some disposition of such waste must be made. 
They return at once to the orchard all but the silk produced from 
the leaves; unnecessary loss is thus avoided and the material 
enters at once the service of forcing the next crop of leaves. 



CHINESE SAVING 



177 



-fl» 



.^.^t. 



.p^^^amj^K 



Mtt 




Fio. 94. - Japanese sheltered comont-lined storage pits for liquid manure. 




FiQ. 95. - Six carrying pails such as are uaed in distributing liquid manure to the 

fielda. 



178 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 



On the farm of Mrs. Wii, near Kashing, while studying the 
operation of two irrigation ])tiiii|)s (lriv(>n by two cows, lifting 
water to flood her 25 acres of rice field preparatory to transplant- 
ing, we were surprised to observe that one of the duties of the lad 
who had charge of the animals was to use a six-quart wooden 
dipper with a l)amboo haiuHc (5 feet long to collect ail excreta, 
before they fell u})on th(> ground, and transfer them to a receptacle 
provided for the purpose. There came a flash of resentment that 
such a task was set for the lad, for we were only beginning to 




Fig. 96. - Applying liquid iniumro from carrying pail.s, ii.sing the loiig-liandkd 

dipper. 



realize to what lengths the practice of economy may go, but there 
was nothing irksome suggested in the boy's face. He performed 
the duty as a matter of course, and as we thought it through there 
was no reason why it should have been otherwise. In fact, the only 
right course was being taken. Conditions would have been worse 
if the collection had not been made. It made jiossible more rice. 
Character of substantial quality was building in the lad which 
meant thrift in the growing man and continued life for the nation. 
Much intelligence and the highest skill are exhibited by these 



RETURNS FROM SAVING 17!) 

old-world farmers in the use of their wastes. In Fi^. 97 is one of 
many examples which mifi;ht be cited. The; man walkiii'^' down the 
row with his manure ])ails swin<i;inK from his shoulders informed 
us on his return that in liis liouseliold there were twenty to be fed; 
that from this fj;ar(l('u of lialf an acre of laiui he usually sold a 
pnxhict brinj.;in<i; in %U)i), Mexicaii .D;i72, gold. The crop was 
cucumbers in groups of two rows 30 inches a])art and 24 inches 
between th(^ groups. Th(^ plants were 8 to 10 inches a])art in tlu; 
row. He had just marketed the last of a crop of greens whi(;h 
occupied the space between the rows of cucund)ers seen nmU'v the 
strong, (hirable, liglit and very readily removabl(! trellises. On 
May 28th the vines were beginning to run, so not a minuter had 
been lost in the change of croj). On the contrary, this man had 
added a numth to his growing season by over-la|)ping his cro])s, 
and tlu^ trellises enabled him to feed more |)laiits of this ty|»e than 
there was room for vines on the ground. With ingenuity and nnich 
labour he had made his half-acre for cucumbers equivalent to 
more than two. lie had removed the vines entirely from the 
ground; ha<l ])r()vided a travel spac-e 2 feet wide, down which he 
was walking, and he ha-d made it possible t(t work about the roots 
of every plant for the j)urpose of hoeing and feeding. Four acres 
of cucumbers handled by American field methods would not yield 
more than this maji's one, and he grows besides two other crops 
the same season. TIk; dilTerence is not so nuich in a(;tivity of 
muscle as it is in alertness and efliciency of the grey matter of the 
brain. He sees and treats each plant individually, he loosens the 
ground so that his liquid manure drops immediately beneath the 
surface within reach of the active roots. If the rainfall has been 
scanty and the soil is dry h(^ may who, ten of water to two of night 
soil, not to supply watcT but to make certain suHiciently (hiep 
penetration. If the weatlu^r is rainy and the soil over wet, the food 
is apj)lied more concentrated, not to lighten the burden but to 
avoid waste by leaching and over-saturation. While; he is (^ver 
crow<ling growth hv, n(!ver overfeeds. Forethought, after-thought 
and the mind focused on the work in hand are characteristic 
of these people. We do not recall to have seen a man smoking 
while at work. They enjoy smoking, but prefer to do this also 
with the attention undivided and thus get more for tlu'ir money. 
On another date earlier in May we were walking in the fields 



180 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 








A N G L E-W OEMS 181 

without an interpreter. For half an hour we stood watching an 
old gardener fitting the soil with his spading hoe in the manner 
seen in Fig. 22, where the graves of his ancestors occupy a part of 
the land. Angle-worms were extremely numerous, as large round 
as an ordinary lead pencil, and, when not extended, two-thirds as 
long, decidedly greenish in colour. Nearly every stroke of the 
spade exposed two to five of these worms, but so far as we observed, 
and we watched the man closely, pulverizing the soil, he neither 
injured nor left uncovered a single worm. While he seemed to 
make no effort to avoid injuring them or to cover them with 
earth, and while we could not talk with him, we are convinced 
that his action was continually guarded against injuring the 
worms. They certainly were subsoiling his garden deeply and 
making possible a freer circulation of air far below the surface. 
Their great abundance proved a high content of organic matter 
present in the soil and, as the worms ate their way through it, 
passing the soil through their bodies, the yearly volume of work 
done by them was very great. In the fields flooded preparatory 
to fitting them for rice these worms are forced to the surface in 
enormous numbers, and large flocks of ducks are taken to such 
fields to feed upon them. 

In another field a crop of barley was nearing maturity. An 
adjacent strip of land was to be fitted and planted. The leaning 
barley heads were in the way. Not one must be lost and every 
inch of ground must be put to use. The grain along the margin, 
for a breadth of 16 inches, had been gathered into handfuls and 
skilfully tied, each with an unpulled barley stem, without breaking 
the straw, thus permitting even the grains in that head to fill and 
be gathered with the rest, while the tying set aU straws well aslant, 
out of the way, and permitted the last inch of naked ground to 
be fitted without injuring the grain. 

In still another instance a man was growing Irish potatoes to 
market when yet small. He had enriched his soil; he would have 
applied water if the rains had not been timely and sufficient; and 
he had fed the plants. He had planted in rows only 12 to 14 
inches apart with a hill every 8 inches in the row. The vines stood 
strong, straight, 14 inches high and as even as a trimmed hedge. 
The leaves and stems were turgid, the deepest green, and as prime 
and glossy as a prize steer. So close were the plants that there 



182 THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

was leaf surface to intercept the sunshine falling on every square 
inch of the patch. There were no potato beetles and we saw no 
signs of injury, but the gardener was scanning the patch with the 
eye of a robin. He spied the slightest first drooping of leaves in a 
stem; went after the difliculty and brought and placed in our hand 
a cut-worm, a young tuber the size of a marble and a stem cut 
half off, which he was willing to sacrifice because of our evident 
interest. 

Jiut the two friends who had met were held apart by the confu- 
sion of tongues. Nothing is costing the world more, has made so 
many enemies, and has so much hindered the forming of friend- 
ships as the inability to fully understand. Hence the dove that 
brings world peace must fly on the wings of a common language. 
The bright star in the east is world conuuerce, rising on ra])idly 
developing railway and steamship lines, herahh'd and directed by 
electric conuuunication. With world commerce nuist come nnitual 
confidence and friendship, requiring a full un( Upstanding and 
therefore a common tongue. Tlien world peace will be permanently 
assured. It is coming inevitably and faster than we think. Once 
this desired end is seriously sought, ihe carrying of three genera- 
tions of children through the public schools where the world 
language is taught together with the mother tongue, and the 
])assing of the parents and grand |)a rents, would efl'ect the 
change. 

The important point regarding these Far Eastern peo})h'S, to 
which attention should be directed, is that elTective thinking, clear 
and strong, prevails among the farmers who have fed and are 
still feeding the dense ]io]>idations from the products of their 
limited areas. This is further indicated in tlu' universal and exten- 
sive use of plant ashes derived from fuel grown upon cultivated 
fields and upon the adjacent hill and mountain lands. 

We were unable to secure exact data regarding the amoimt 
of fu(d burned annually in these countries, and of ashes used as • 
fertilizer, but a cord of dry oak wood w(Mghs about 3,51)0 pounds, 
and the weight of fuel used in the hom(> and in mamifactures nuist 
exceed that of two cords per household. Japan has an average of 
5-563 people per family. If we allow but 1,300 pounds of fuel fer 
capila, Ja|)an's consumption would be 31,200,000 tons. In view 
of the fact that a very large share of the fuel used in these coun- 



LABOKIOUS GREEN MANURING 183 

tries is either agricultural plant stems, with an average ash content 
of 5 per cent., or the twigs and even leaves of trees, as in the case 
of pine-bough fuel, 4-5 per cent, of ash may be taken as a fair 
estimate. On this basis, and with a content of phosphorus equal 
to -5 per cent, and of potassium equal to 5 per cent, the fuel ash 
for Japan would amount to 1,404,000 tons annually, carrying 
7,020 tons of phosphorus and 70,200 tons of potassium, together 
with more than 400,000 tons of limestone, returned annually to 
less than 21,321 square miles of cultivated land. 

In China, with her more than 400 millions of people, a similar 
rate of fuel consumption would make the phosphorus and potas- 
sium returned to her fields more than eight times the amounts 
computed for Japan. On the basis of these statements, Japan's 
annual saving of phosphorus from the waste of her fuel would be 
equivalent to more than 46,800 tons of rock phosphate having a 
purity of 75 per cent, or in the neigliboiu-hood of 7 pounds per 
acre. If this amount, even with the potash and limestone added, 
appears like a trifling addition of fertility, it is important to 
remember that, even if this is so, these people have felt compelled 
to make the saving. 

In the matter of returning soluble potassium to the cultivated 
fields Japan would be applying with her ashes the equivalent of no 
less than 156,600 tons of pure potassium sulphate, equal to 23 
pounds per acre; while the lime carbonate so applied annually 
would be some 62 pounds per acre. 

In addition to the forest lands, which have long been made 
to contribute plant food to the cultivated fields through fuel ashes, 
there are large areas which contribute green manure and compost 
material. These are chiefly hill lands, aggregating some 20 per 
cent of the cultivated fields, which bear mostly herbaceous growth. 
Some 2,552,741 acres of these lands may be cut over three times 
each season, yielding, in 1903, an average of 7,980 pounds per acre. 
The first cutting of this hill herbage is mainly used on the rice 
fields as green manure, trampled into the mud between the rows 
after the manner seen in Fig. 98. The man had been with basket 
and sickle to gather green herbage wherever he could and had 
brought it to his rice field. The day was in July and extremely 
sultry. We came upon him wading in the water half-way to his 
knees, carefully laying the herbage between alternate rows of 



184 THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

rice, one handful in each place, with tips overlapping. This done, 
he took the attitude seen in the illvistration and, gathering the 
materials into a compact bunch, pressed it beneath the surface 
with his foot. The two hands smoothed the soft mud over the 
grass and righted the disturbed spears of rice in the two adjacent 
hills. Thus, foot following foot, one bare length ahead, the suc- 
ceeding bunches of herbage were submerged until the last had been 
reached. 

He was renting the land at 40 kan of rice per tan, and his usual 




Fig. 98. — Japanese farmer trampling green herbage for fertilizer into the water 
and mud between rows of rice. 

yield was 80 kan. This is 44 bushels of 60 pounds per acre. In 
unfavourable seasons his yield might be less, but still his rent 
would be 40 kan per tan, unless it was clear that he had done all 
that could reasonably be expected of him in securing the crop. 
The second and third cuttings of herbage from the genya lands 
in Japan are used for the preparation of compost applied on the 
dry-land fields in the autumn or in the spring of the following 
season. Some of these lands are pastured, but approximately 
10,185,500 tons of green herbage grown and gathered from the 
hills contributes much of its organic matter and all of its ash to 



GENYA LANDS 



185 



enrich the cultivated fields. Such wild growth areas in Japan are 
the commons of the near-by villages, to which the people are freely- 
admitted for the purpose of cutting the herbage. A fixed time may- 
be set for cutting and a limit placed upon the amount which may 
be carried away, which is done in the manner seen in Fig. 99. It 
is well recognized by the people that this constant cutting and 



f^ i 


0^ ^.^jfeykJi-a^afcA Q^HJl^ ':!if^D3^^BtMlM^rtNriflB^ 


%S^^Bmfi^Mm^^ 


l^B^^Br^ f^^^SHi^ - ' '^I^K^H^^B ^^n^H 


■^^ ;p|| 


rV ^ ^H^^^r "^ 'ifl^^^^^^B!^^^^^9 







i -. '-' ' ' - : :i children rrturniiig from ycnya h:. i. ..:i herbage for use 
as green maniu-e or for making compost. The davighter carries the tea-kettle 
to supply their safe sanitary drink. 

removal of growth from the hill lands, with no return, depletes the 
soils and reduces the amount of green herbage they are able to 
secure. 

Through the kindness of Dr. Daikuhara, of the Imperial Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station at Tokio, we are able to give the aver- 
age composition of the green leaves and young stems of five of the 
most common wild species of plants cut for green manure in June. 



186 THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

In each 1,000 pounds the amount of water is 562-18 pounds; of 
organic matter, 382-68 pounds; of ash, 55-14 pounds; nitrogen, 
4-78 pounds; potassium, 2-407 pounds; and phosphorus, -34 pound. 
On the basis of this composition and an aggregate yield of 
10,185,500 tons, there would be annually applied to the culti- 
vated fields 3,463 tons of phosphorus and 24,516 tons of potas- 
sium derived from the genya lands. 

In addition to this the run-off from both the mountain and the 
genya lands is largely used upon the rice fields, more than 16 
inches of water being applied annually to them in some prefectures. 
If such waters have the com])nsition of river waters in North 
America, 12 inches of water applied to the rice fields of the three 
main islands would contribute no less than 1,200 tons of phos- 
phorus and 19,000 tons of potassium annually. 

Dr. Kawaguchi, of the National Department of Agriculture and 
Commerce, informed us that in 1908 Japanese farmers prepared 
and a})plied to their fields 22,812,787 tons of compost manufac- 
tured from the wastes of cattle, horses, swine and poultry, com- 
bined with herbage, straw and other similar wastes and with soil, 
sod or mud from ditches and canals. The amount of this com- 
post is sufficient fco apply 1-78 tons per acre of cultivated land 
of the southern three main islands. 

From data obtained at the Nara Experiment Station, the com- 
position of compost as there prepared shows it to contain, in 
each 2,000 pounds, 550 pounds of organic matter; 15-6 pounds of 
nitrogen; 8-3 pounds of potassium; and 5-24 pounds of phosphorus. 
On this basis 22,800,000 tons of compost will carry 59,700 tons of 
phosphorus and 94,600 tons of potassium. The construction of 
compost houses is illustrated in Fig. 100, reproduced from a large 
circular sent to farmers from the Nara Experiment Station, and 
an exterior of one at the Nara Station is given in Fig. 101. 

This compost house is designed to serve 2| acres. Its floor is 
12 by 18 feet, rendered water-tight by a mixture of clay, lime 
and sand. The walls are of earth 1 foot thick, and the roof is 
thatched with straw. Its capacity is 16 to 20 tons, having a 
cash value of 60 yen, or $30. In preparing the stack, materials 
are brought daily and spread over one side of the compost floor 
until the pile has attained a height of 5 feet. After 1 foot in depth 
has been laid and firmed, 1 -2 inches of soil or mud is spread over 



TOTAL FERTILIZERS USED 



187 



the surface and the process repeated until full height has been 
attained. Water is added sufficient to keep the whole saturated 
and to maintain the temperature below that of the body. After 
the compost stacks have been completed they are permitted to 
stand five weeks in summer, seven weeks in winter, when they 
are forked over and transferred to the opposite side of the house. 




ih^tKfH 



) 


\ I 


\ 






_^BA4.4X|» 



FlO. 100. - Section of chart issued by the Nara Experiment Station, ilhistrating 
construction of compost house; upper section sliowa elevation; middle portion 
is a cross section, and the lower shows floor plan. 

If we state in round numbers the total nitrogen, phosphorus 
and potassium thus far enumerated which Japanese farmers apply 
or return annually to their 20,000 or 21,000 square miles of culti- 
vated fields, the case stands 385,214 tons of nitrogen, 91,656 tons 
of phosphorus, and 255,778 tons of potassium. These values are 



188 THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 

only approximations and do not include the large volume and 
variety of fertilizers prepared from fish, which have long been 
used. Neither do they include the very large amount of nitrogen 
derived directly from the atmosphere through their long, exten- 
sive and persistent cultivation of soy beans and other legumes. 
Indeed, from 1903 to 1906 the average area of paddy fields upon 
which was grown a second crop of green manure in the form of 
some legume was 6-8 per cent, of the total area of such fields, 
aggregating 11,000 square miles. In 1906 over 18 per cent of 




Fig. 101. — Exterior view of compost house at Nara Experiment Station. 

the upland fields, aggregating between 9,000 and 10,000 square 
miles, also produced some leguminous crop. 

While the values which have been given above, expressing the 
sum total of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium applied annually 
to the cultivated fields of Japan, may be somewhat too high for 
some of the sources named, there is little doubt that Japanese 
farmers apply to their fields more of these three plant-food ele- 
ments annually than has been comi^uted. The amoimts which 
have been given are sufficient to provide annually,' for each acre 
of the 21,321 square miles of cultivated land, an application of 
not less than 56 pounds of nitrogen, 13 pounds of phosphorus and 
37 pounds of potassium. Or, if we omit the large northern island 
of Hokkaido, still new in its agriculture and lacking the intensive 



FEKTILIZERS REMOVED BY CROPS 189 

practices of the older farm land, the quantities are sufficient for 
a mean application of 60, 14 and 40 pounds respectively of nitro- 
gen, phosphorus and potassium per acre; and yet the maturing of 
1,000 pounds of wheat crop, covering grain and straw as water- 
free substance, removes from the soil but 13-9 pounds of nitrogen, 
2-3 pounds of phosphorus and 8-4 pounds of potassium, from 
which it may be computed that the 60 pounds of nitrogen added 
is sufficient for a crop yielding 31 bushels of wheat; the phosphorus 
is sufficient for a crop of 44 bushels, and the potassium for a crop 
of 355 bushels per acre. 

Dr. Hopkins, in his recent valuable work on Soil Fertility and 
Permanetit Agriculture, gives, on page 154, a table from which 
we abstract the following data: 

APPROXIMATE AMOUNTS OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS AND 
POTASSIUM REMOVABLE PER ACRE ANNUALLY BY 

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, 

100 bush, crop of corn 
100 bush, crop of oats 
50 bush, crop of wheat 
25 bush, crop of soy beans 
100 bush, crop of rice 

3 ton crop of timothy hay 

4 ton crop of clover hay 
3 ton crop of cow pea hay 
8 ton crop of alfalfa hay 
7,000 lb. crop of cotton 
400 bush, crop of potatoes 
20 ton crop of sugar beets 
Annually applied in Japan, more than 60 

We have inserted in this table, for comparison, the crop of rice, 
and have increased the crop of potatoes from 300 bushels to 400 
bushels per acre, because such a yield, like all of those named, is 
quite practicable under good management and favourable seasons, 
notwithstanding the fact that much smaller yields are generally 
attained through lack of sufficient plant food or water. From this 
table, assuming that a crop of matured grain contains 11 per cent 
of water and the straw 15 per cent, while potatoes contain 79 per 



unds. 


pounds. 


pounds. 


148 


23 


71 


97 


16 


68 


96 


16 


58 


159 


21 


73 


155 


18 


95 


72 


9 


71 


160 


20 


120 


130 


14 


98 


400 


36 


192 


168 


29-4 


82 


84 


17-3 


120 


100 


18 


157 


I 60 


14 


40 



190 



THE UTILIZATION OF WASTE 



cent and beets 87 per cent, the amounts of the three plant-foofl 
elements removable annually by 1,000 pounds of crop have been 
calculated and stated in the next table. 

APPROXIMATE AMOUNTS OF NITROGEN, PHOSPHORUS AND 
POTASSIUM REMOVABLE ANNUALLY PER 1,000 POUNDS OF 
DRY CROP SUBSTANCE 



Cereals. 
Wheat 
Oats 
Corn 

Soy beans 
Cow peas 
Clover 
Alfalfa 

Beets 
Potatoes 

Timothy 
Rice 

From the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium 
applied annually to the cultivated fields of Japan and from the 
data in these two tables, it may be readily seen that these people 
are now, and probably long have been, applying quite as much of 
these three plant-food elements to their fields with each planting 
as are removed from the crop, and if this is true in Japan it must 
also be true in China. Moreover, there is nothing in American 
agricultural practice which indicates that we shall not ultimately 
be compelled to do likewise. 



Legumes. 



Roots. 



Grass. 



Nitrogen, 
pounds. 


Phosphorus, 
pounds. 


Potassium, 
pounds. 


13-873 
13-666 
13-719 


2-312 
2-254 
2-149 


8-382 
9-580 
6-676 


30-807 
25-490 
23-529 
29-411 


4-070 
2-745 
2-941 
2-647 


14-147 
19-216 
17-647 
14-118 


19-213 
15-556 


3-402 
3-210 


30-192 
22-222 


14-117 
9-949 


1-765 
1-129 


13-922 
6-089 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

ON May 15th we left Shanghai by one of the coastwise steamers 
for Tsingtao, some 300 miles farther north, in the Shantung 
province, our object being to keep in touch with methods of 
tillage and fertilization, corresponding phases of which would 
occur there later in the season. 

The Shantung province is in the latitude of North Carolina and 
Kentucky, or lies between that of San Francisco and Los Angeles. 
It has an area of nearly 56,000 squares miles, about that of Wis- 
consin. Less than one-half of this area is cultivated land, yet it is 
at the present time supporting a population exceeding 38,000,000 
of people. New York state has to-day less than 10 millions and 
more than half of these are in New York city. 

It was in this province that Confucius was born, 2,461 years ago, 
and that Mencius, his disciple, lived. Here, too, 1,700 years before 
Confucius' time, after one of the great floods of the Yellow River, 
2297 B.C., and more than 4,100 years ago, the Great Yu was 
appointed 'Superintendent of Public Works' and entrusted with 
draining off the flood waters and canalizing the river. 

Here also was the beginning of the Boxer uprising. Tsingtao 
sits at the entrance of Kiaochow Bay. Following the war of Japan 
with China this was seized by Germany, November 14th, 1897, 
nominally to indemnify for the murder of two German mission- 
aries which had occurred in Shantung, and March 6th, 1898, this 
bay, to the high water line, its islands and a 'Sphere of Influence' 
extending 30 miles in all directions from the boundary, together 
with Tsingtao, was leased to Germany for ninety-nine years. 
Russia demanded and secured a lease of Port Arthur at the same 
time. Great Britain obtained a similar lease of Wei-hai-wei in 
Shantung, while to France Kwangchow-wan in southern China 
was leased. But the 'encroachments' of European powers did not 
stop with these leases and during the latter part of 1898 the 'Policy 
of Spheres of Influence' culminated in the international rivalry 
for railway concessions and mining. These greatly alarmed 
China and, as might have been expected of a patriotic, even 
though naturally peaceful people, they determined to defend 

191 



192 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

their country against such encroachments and the Boxer troubles 
followed. 

Tsingtao has a deep, commodious harbour always free from ice. 
Here Germany is constructing very extensive and substantial 
harbour improvements which will be of lasting benefit to the 
province and the Empire. A pier 4 miles in length encloses the 
inner wharf, and a second wharf is ncaring completion. Germany 
is also maintaining a meteorological observatory and has estab- 
lished a large, comprehensive Forest Garden, which is showing 
remarkable developments for so short a time. 

Our steamer entered the harbour during the night and, on going 
ashore, we soon found thatonly Chinese and German were generally 
spoken. The afternoon was spent at the Forest Garden and on the 
reforestation tract, which are under the supervision of Mr. Haas. 
The Forest Garden covers 270 acres and the reforestation tract 
3,000 acres more. In the garden a great variety of forest trees, 
fruit trees and small fruits are being tried out with high promise 
of the most valuable results. 

It was in the steep hills about Tsingtao that we first saw at close 
range serious soil erosion in China; and the renewal of forest 
growth on hills nearly devoid of soil was here remarkable, in view 
of the long dry seasons which prevail from November to June. 
Fig. 102 shows how destitute of soil the crests of granite hills may 
become and yet how the return of forest growth may hasten as 
soon as it is no longer cut away. The rock going into decay, where 
this view was taken, is an extremely coarse crystalline granite, as 
may be seen in contrast with the watch, and it is falling into decay 
at a marvellous rate. Disintegration has penetrated the rock far 
below the surface and the large crystals are held together with but 
little more tenacity than prevails in a bed of gravel. Moisture 
and even roots penetrate it deeply and readily and the crystals 
fall apart with thrusts of the knife blade. Roadways have been 
extensively carved along the sides of the hills with the aid of only 
pick and shovel. Close examination of the rock shows that layers 
of sediment exist between the crystal faces, either washed down by 
percolating rain or formed through decomposition of the crystals 
in place. The next illustration. Fig. 103, shows how large the 
growth on such soils may be, and in Fig. 104 the vegetation and 
forest growth are seen coming back, closely covering just such 



REFORESTATION 



193 



soil surfaces and rock structure as are indicated in Figs. 102 and 
103. 

These views are taken on the reforestation tract at Tsingtao, 
but most of the growth is volunteer, protected now by the German 
Government in their eftort to see what may be possible under 
careful supervision. 







Fio. 102. - Granite hill destitute of soil, rapidly falling into decay. Reforestation 
area, Tsingtao, Shantving. 



The loads of pine bough fuel represented in Fig. 65 were 
gathered from such hills and from such forest growth as are 
here represented, but on lands more distant from the city. 
But Tsingtao, with its 40,000 Chinese, and Kiaochow across the 
bay, with its 120,000 more, and other villages dotting the 
narrow plains, maintain a very great demand for such growth 

F.F.C, G 



191 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 




WILD YELLOW ROSE 



195 



growth has 
the way of 



on the hill lands. The wonder is that forest 
persisted at all and has contributed so much in 
fuel. 

Growing in the Forest Garden was a most beautiful wild yellow 
rose, native to Shantung. It was used for landscape effect in the 
parking, and ought to be widely introduced into other countries 
wherever it will thrive. It was growing as heavy borders and 
massive clumps 6 to 8 feet high, giving a wonderful effect, with its 
brilliant, dense cloud of the richest yellow bloom. The blossoms 
are single, fully as large as the Rosa rugosa. The tips of the petals 
shade into dainty light straw yellow, while the centre is a deep 




FiQ. 104. - Forest and herbaceous growth coming back over such soil conditions 
as are seen in Figs. 102 and 103. Reforestation tract, Tsingtao, Shantung. 



orange, with a contrast sufficient to show in the photograph from 
which Fig. 105 was prepared. Another beautiful and striking 
feature of this rose is the clustering of the blossoms in one-sided 
wreath-like sprays, sometimes 12 to 18 inches long, the flowers 
standing close enough even to overlap. 

The next morning we took the early train for Tsinan to obta in 
a general view of the country and to note the places most favour- 
able as points for field study. We had resolved also to make an 
efEort to secure an interpreter through the Union Medical College 



196 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 



at Tsinan. Leaving Tsingtao, the train skirts around the Kiao- 
chow bay for a distance of nearly 50 miles, passing the city of the 
same name, with its population of 120,000 and an import and 
export trade valued in 1905 at over $24,000,000. At Sochen we 
passed through a coal-mining district where coal was being brought 
to the cars in baskets carried by men. The coal on the loaded 
open cars was sprinkled with whitewash, which served the purpose 
of a seal to safeguard against stealing during transit. It was 
sprinkled in such a way that no coal could be removed without 







^ 






v.^:- *s:*,^ 


r*' .■'-^•. »■■■ i"'-^ ■' 


ViiMlBESSXI^l^P' . 







Fig. 105. - Close view of the wild yellow Shantung rose cultivated in the Forest 
Garden at Tsingtao, and very effective for parks and pleasure drives. 



breaking the pattern of the whitewash and so revealing the theft. 
This practice is general in China and is applied to many commodi- 
ties handled in bulk. We saw baskets of milled rice carried by 
coolies sealed with a pattern laid over the surface by sprinkling 
some coloured powder upon it. Cut stone, corded for the market, 
was whitewashed in the same manner as the coal. 

As we were approaching Weihsien, another city of 100,000 
people, we saw half a dozen teams passing along one of the deeply 
depressed, centuries-old roadways, worn 8 to 10 feet deep. We 
had passed several such roads and were puzzled to account for 



LOSTINTSINAN 197 

such peculiar erosion. The teams gave the explanation and thus 
connected our earlier reading with the concrete fact. Along 
these deep-cut roadways caravans may pass, winding through 
the fields, entirely unobserved unless one chances to be close 
along the line or the movement is discovered by clouds of 
dust. 

Weihsien is near one of the great commercial highways of China 
and in the centre of one of the coal-mining regions of the province. 
Still further along towards Tsinan we passed Tsingchowfu, another 
of the large cities of the province, with 50,000 population. All 
day we rode through fields of wheat, always planted in rows, and 
in hills in the row east of Kaumi, but in single or double continuous 
drills westward from here to Tsinan. Thousands of wells used for 
irrigation, of the type seen in Fig. 107, were passed during the day, 
many of them recently dug to supply water for the barley then 
suffering from severe drought. 

It was 6.30 p.m. before our train pulled into the station at 
Tsinan; 7.30 when we had finished supper and engaged a ricksha 
to take us to the College in quest of an interpreter. We could not 
speak Chinese, the ricksha boy could neither speak nor understand 
a word of English, but the hotel proprietor had instructed him 
where to go. We plunged into the narrow streets of a great Chinese 
city, the boy running wherever he could, walking where he must 
on account of the density of the crowds or the roughness of the 
stone paving. We had turned many corners, crossed bridges and 
passed through tunnelled archways in sections of the massive city 
walls, imtil it was getting dusk and the ricksha man purchased and 
lighted a lantern. We were to reach the college in thirty minutes 
but had been out a full hour. A little later the boy drew up to and 
held conference with a policeman. The curious of the street 
gathered about, and it dawned upon us that we were lost in the 
night in the narrow streets of a Chinese city of 300,000 people. 
To go further would be useless, for the gates of the mission com- 
pound would be locked. We could only indicate by motions our 
desire to return, but these were not understood. On the train a 
thoughtful, kindly old German had recognized a stranger in a 
foreign land and volunteered useful information, cutting from his 
daily paper an advertisement describing a good hotel. This gave 
the name of the hotel in German, English and in Chinese characters. 



198 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

We handed this to the policeman, pointing to the name of the 
hotel, indicating by motions the desire to return, but apparently 
he was imable to read in either language and seemed to think 
we were assuming to direct the way to the college. A man and 
boy in the crowd apparently volunteered to act as escort for us. 
The throng parted and we left them, turned more corners into 
more unlighted narrow alleyways, one of which was too difficult 
to permit us to ride. The escorts, if such they were, finally left us, 
but the dark alley led on until it terminated at the blank face, 
probably of some other portion of the massive city wall we had 
thrice threaded through lighted tunnels. Here the ricksha boy 
stopped and turned about, but the light from his lantern was too 
feeble to permit reading the workings of his mind through his face, 
and our tongues were both utterly useless in this emergency, so we 
motioned for him to turn back and by some route we reached the 
hotel at 11 p.m. 

We abandoned the effort to visit the college for the purpose of 
securing an interpreter, and took the early train back to Tsingtao, 
reaching that place in time to secure the satisfactory service of 
Mr. Chu Wei Yung, through the kind offices of Mr. Scott. We had 
been twice over the road between the two cities, obtaining a 
general idea of the country and of the crops and field operations 
at this season. The next morning we took an early train to Tsang- 
kau and were ready to walk through the fields and to talk with 
the last generations of more than forty unbroken centuries of 
farmers who, with brain and brawn, have successfully and con- 
tinuously sustained large families on small areas without impover- 
ishing their soil. Fig. 106 is from a photograph taken in one of 
these fields. We astonished the old farmer by asking the privilege 
of holding his plough through one round in his little field, a request 
which he readily granted. Our furrow was not as well turned as 
his, nor as well as we could have done with a two-handled Oliver 
or John Deere, but it was better than the old man had expected 
and won his respect. 

This plough had a good steel point, as a separate, blunt, V- 
shaped piece, and a mouldboard of cast steel with a good twist 
which turned the soil well. The standard and sole were of wood 
and at the end of the beam was a block for gauging the depth of 
furrow. The cost of this plough, to the farmer, was $2.15, gold, and 



CHINESE PLOUGH 



199 



when the day's work is done it is taken home on the shoulders, 
even though the distance may be a mile or more, and carefully 
housed. Chinese tradition states that the plough was invented by 
Shennung, who lived 2837-2697 b.c. and 'taught the art of agri- 
culture and the medical use of herbs.' He is honoured as the 'God 
of Agriculture and Medicine.' 

Through my interpreter we learned that there were twelve in 
the man's family, maintained on 15 mow of land, or 2-5 acres, 
together with his team, consisting of a cow and small donkey. 




Fig. 106. - A Shantung plough, simple but effective. 



besides two pigs. This is at the rate of 192 people, 16 cows, 16 
donkeys and 32 pigs on a 40-acre farm; and of a population density 
equivalent to 3,072 people, 256 cows, 256 donkeys and 512 swine 
per square mile of cultivated field. 

On another small holding we talked with the farmer standing at 
the well in Fig. 23, where he was irrigating a little piece of barley 
30 feet wide and 138 feet long. He owned and was cultivating but 
If acres of land, and yet there were ten in his family and he kept 
one donkey and usually one pig. Here is a maintenance capacity 
at the rate of 240 people, 24 donkeys and 24 pigs on a 40-acre 



200 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

farm; and a population density of 3,840 people, 384 donkeys and 
384 pigs per square mile. His usual annual sales in good seasons 
were equivalent-in value to $73, gold. 

In both these cases the crops grown were wheat, barley, large 
and small millet, sweet potatoes and soy beans or peanuts. Much 
straw braid is manufactured in the province by the women and 
children in their homes, and the cargo of the steamer on which 
we returned to Shanghai consisted almost entirely of shelled pea- 
nuts in gunny sacks and huge bales of straw braid destined for the 
manufacture of hats in Europe and America. 

Shantung has only a moderate rainfall, little more than 24 inches 
annually, and this fact has played an important part in deter- 
mining the agricultural practices of these very old people. In 
Fig. 107 is a closer view than Fig. 23 of the farmer watering his 
little field of barley. The well had just been dug, over 8 feet deep, 
expressly and solely to water this one piece of grain once, aftei 
which it would be filled and the ground planted. 

The season had been unusually dry, as had been the one before, 
and the people were fearing famine. Only 2-44 inches of rain had 
fallen at Tsingtao between the end of the preceding October and 
our visit, May 21st, and hundreds of such temporary wells had 
been or were being dug along both sides of the 250 miles of railway, 
and nearly all to be filled up again when the crop on the ground 
was irrigated, to release the land for the crop to follow. The 
homes are in villages a mile or more apart and often the holdings 
or rentals are scattered, separated by considerable distances, hence 
easy portability is the key-note in the construction of this irrigat- 
ing outfit. The bucket is very light, simply a woven basket water- 
proofed with a paste of bean flour. The windlass turns like a long 
spool on a single pin and the standard is a tripod with removable 
legs. Some wells we saw were 16 or 20 feet deep and in these the 
water was raised by a cow walking straight away at the end of a 
rope. 

The amount and distribution of rainfall in this province, as 
indicated by the mean of ten years' records at Tsingtao, ob- 
tained at the German Meteorological Observatory through 
the courtesy of Dr. B. Meyermanns, are given in the table in 
which the rainfall of Madison, Wisconsin, is inserted for com- 
parison. 



LABORIOUS IRRIGATING 



201 




202 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 





Mean monthly rainfall. 


Mean rainfall 


in 10 days 




Tsingtao, 


Madison, 


Tsingtao, 


Madison, 




Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


January 


•394 


1-56 


•131 


•520 


February 


•240 


1-50 


•080 


-500 


March 


-892 


2-12 


•297 


-707 


April 


1-240 


2-52 


•413 


-840 


May 


1-636 


3-62 


•545 


1-207 


June 


2-702 


4-10 


-901 


1^366 


July 


6-637 


3-90 


2-212 


1-300 


August 


5-157 


3-21 


1-719 


1-070 


September 


2-448 


3-15 


-816 


1-050 


October 


2-258 


■ 2-42 


•753 


-807 


November 


•396 


1-78 


•132 


-593 


December 


•682 


1-77 
31-65 


•227 


•590 


Total 


24-682 





Wbile Shantung receives less than 25 inches of rain during the 
year, against Wisconsin's more than 31 inches, the rainfall during 
June, July and August in Shantung is nearly 14-5 inches, while 
Wisconsin receives but 11-2 inches. This gi-eater summer rainfall, 
with persistent fertilization and intense management, in a warm 
latitude, are some of the elements permitting Shantung to-day to 
feed 38,247,900 people from an area equal to that upon which 
Wisconsin is yet feeding but 2,333,860. Must American agricul- 
ture ultimately feed sixteen people where it is now feeding but 
one? If so, correspondingly intense and effective practices must 
follow, and we can neither know too well nor too early what these 
Old World people have been driven to do, how they have succeeded, 
and how we and they may improve upon their practices and lighten 
human burdens by more fully utilizing physical forces and mech- 
anical appliances. 

As we passed on to other fields we found a mother and daughter 
transplanting sweet potatoes on carefully fitted ridges of nearly 
air-dry soil in a little field, the remnant of a table on a deeply 
eroded hillside (Fig. 108). The husband was bringing water for 
moistening the soil from a deep ravine a quarter of a mile distant, 
carrying it on his shoulder in two buckets (Fig. 109) across an 
intervening gulch. He had excavated four holes at intervals up 



TRANSPLANTING SWEET POTATOES 203 

the gulch and from these, with a broken gourd dipper mended with 
stitches, he filled his pails, bailing in succession from one to the 
other in regular rotation. 

The daughter was transplanting. Holding the slip with its tip 
between thumb and fingers, a strong forward stroke ploughed a 
furrow in the mellow, dry soil; then, with a backward movement 
and a downward thrust, she planted the slip, firmed the soil 
about it, leaving a depression in which the mother poured about a 
pint of water from another gourd dipper. After the water had 
soaked away, dry earth was drawn about the slip and firm and 




Fig. 108. - Strong erosion in Shantung, with wheat on roinuanta of tables. 

looser earth drawn over this, the only tools being the naked hands 
and dipper. 

The father and mother were dressed in coarse garb but the 
daughter was neatly clad, with delicate hands decorated with 
rings and a bracelet. Neither of the women had bound feet. There 
were ten in the family; and on adjacent similar areas they had 
small patches of wheat nearly ready for the harvest, all planted 
in hills, hoed, and in astonishingly vigorous condition considering 
the extreme drought which prevailed. The potatoes were being 
planted under these extreme conditions in anticipation of the rainy 
season which then was fully due. The summer before had been 



204 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 



one of unusual drought, and famine was threatened. The govern- 
ment had recently issued an edict that no sheep should be sold 
from the province, fearing they might be needed for food. An old 
woman in one of the villages came out, as we wallced through, and 
inquired of my interpreter if we had come to make it rain. Such 
was the stress under which we found these people. 

One of the large farmers, owning 10 acres, stated that his usual 
yield of wheat in good season was IGO catty per mow, equivalent 
to 21-3 bushels per acre. He was expecting the current season 
not more than one-half this amount. As a fertilizer he used a 




Fig. 109. - Getting water to trans[)lant sweet potatoes. A Standard Oil can is 
balanced against China's ancient stone jar. 

prepared earth compost which we shall describe later, mixing it 
with the grain and sowing in the hills with the seed, applying 
about 5,333 pounds per acre, which he valued, in our currency, 
at $8.60, or $3.22 per ton. A pile of such prepared compost is 
seen in Fig. 110, ready to be transferred to the field. The views 
show with what cleanliness the yard is kept and with what care 
all animal waste is saved. The cow and donkey are the work team, 
such as was being used by the ploughman referred to in Fig. 106. 
The mounds in the background of the lower view are graves; the 
fence behind the animals is made from the stems of the large millet, 



A SHANTUNG HOME 



205 




Fio. 



110. — Two views of the Baiiirj larmyanJ, Bliowing a pile of prejjarod compost 
and tho farm team. 



kaoliang, while that at the right of the donkey is made of earth, 
both indicative of the scarcity of timber. The buildings, too, arc 
thatched and their walls are of earth plastered with an earthen 
mortar worked up with chafi. 



206 IN THE SHANTUNG PEOVINCE 

In another field a man ploiigliing and fertilizing for sweet pota- 
toes had brought to the field and laid down in piles the finely 
pulverized dry compost. The father was ploughing; his son of 
sixteen years was following and scattering, from a basket, the 
pulverized dry compost in the bottom of the furrow. The next 
furrow covered the fertilizer, four turned together forming a ridge 
upon which the potatoes were to be planted after a second and 
older son had smoothed and fitted the crest with a heavy hand 
rake. The fertilizer was thus applied directly beneath the row, at 
the rate of 7,400 pounds per acre, valued at $7.15, our currency, 
or $1.93 per ton. 

We were astonished at the moist condition of the soil turned, 
which was such as to pack in the hand notwithstanding the ex- 
treme drought prevailing and the fact that standing water in the 
ground was more than 8 feet below the surface. The field had 
been without crop and cultivated. 

To the question, 'What yield of sweet potatoes do you expect 
from this piece of land?' he replied, 'About 4,000 catty,' which is 
440 bushels of 56 pounds per acre. The usual market price was 
stated to be $1.00, Mexican, per 100 catty, making the gross 
value of the crop $79.49, gold, per acre. His land was valued at 
$60, Mexican, per mow, or $154.80 per acre, gold. 

My interpreter informed me that the average well-to-do farmers 
in this part of Shantung own from 15 to '20 mow of land, and that 
this amount is ample to provide for eight people. Such farmers 
usually keep 2 cows, 2 donkeys, and 8 or 10 pigs. The less well- 
to-do or small farmers own 2 to 5 mow and act as superintendents 
for the larger farmers. Taking the largest holding, of 20 mow per 
family of eight people, as a basis, the density per square mile 
would be 1,536 people, and an area of farm land equal to the state 
of Wisconsin would have 86,000,000 people; 21,500,000 cows; 
21,500,000 donkeys and 86,000,000 swine. These observations 
apply to one of the most productive sections of the province, but 
very large areas of land in the province are not cultivable and the 
last census showed the total population nearly one-half of this 
amount. It is clear, therefore, that either very effective agricul- 
tural methods are practised or else extreme economy is exercised. 
Both are true. 

On this day in the fields our interpreter procured his dinner 



MAKKET PRICES 207 

at a farm-house, bringing us four boiled eggs, for which he paid 
at the rate of 8-3 cents of our money, but his dinner was probably 
inchided in the price. The next table gives the prices for some 
articles obtained by inquiry at the Tsingtao market, May 23rd, 
1909, reduced to our currency. 

Cents 

Old potatoes, per lb. 2-18 

New potatoes, per lb. 2-87 

Salted turnip, per lb. -86 

Onions, per lb. 4-10 

Radishes, bunch of 10 1-29 

String beans, per lb. 11-46 

Cucumbers, per lb. 5-73 

Pears, per lb. 5-73 

Apricots, per lb. 8-60 

Pork, fresh, per lb. 10-33 

Fish, per lb. 5-73 

Eggs, per dozen 5-16 

The only items which are low compared with our own prices 
are salted turnips, radishes and eggs. Most of the articles listed 
were out of season for the locality and were imported for foreigners, 
turnips, radishes, pork, fish and eggs being the exceptions. Prof. 
Ross informs us that he found eggs selling in Shensi at four for 
1 cent of our money. 

Our interpreter asked a compensation of $1, Mexican, or 43 
cents, U.S. currency, per day, he furnishing his own meals. The 
usual wage for farm labour here was $8.60 per year, with board 
and lodging. We have referred to the wages paid by missionaries 
for domestic service. As servants the Chinese are considered 
efficient, faithful and trustworthy. It was the custom of Mr. and 
Mrs. League to entrust them with the purse for marketing, feeling 
that they could be depended upon for the closest bargaining. 
Commonly, when instructed to procure a certain article, if they 
found the price one or two cash higher than usual they would 
select a cheaper substitute. If questioned as to why instructions 
were not followed the reply would be 'Too high, no can afford.' 

Mrs. League recited her experience with her cook regarding his 
use of our kitchen appliances. After fitting the kitchen with a 



208 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

modern range and cooking utensils, and working with him to 
familiaTJzc him with their use, she was surprised, on going into 
the kitchen a few days later, to find that tiie old Chinese^ stove 
had been set on the range and the cooking done with the usual 
Chinese furniture. When asked why he was not using the stove, his 
reply was 'Tak(; too much fire.' Nothing jars on the nerves of these 
people more than incurring needless expense, extravagance in any 
form, or poor judgment in making purchases. 

Daily we became more and more imj)ressed by the evidence of 
the intense and incessant stress imposed by the dense population 
through centuries, and how, under it, the laws of heredity have 
wrought upon the })eople, affecting constitution, habits and char- 
acter, l^jven the cattle and sheej) have not escaped its irresistible 
power. Many times in this province we saw men herding flocks of 
20 to 30 sheep along the narrow unfenced pathways winding 
through the fields, and on the grave lands. The prevailing drought 
had left very little green to be had from these ])laces and yet sheep 
were literally brusliing their siih's against fresh green wheat and 
barley, never molesting them. Time and again the flocks were 
stampeded into the grain by an approaching train, but immedi- 
ately they returned to their j)laces without taking a nibble. The 
voice of the shepherd and an occasional well aimed lump of earth 
only were required to bring them l)ack to their uninviting })astures. 

In Kiangsu and Chekiang provinces a line of half a dozen white 
goats were often seen feeding single file along the pathways, held 
by a cord like a string of beads, sometinu\s led by a child. Here, 
too, one of the most conmion siglits was the water buffalo grazing 
unattended among the fields along the ])aths and canal banks, 
with crops all about. One of the most memorable shocks came to 
us in Chekiang, China, when we had fallen into a reverie while 
gazing at the sliifting landscape from the doorway of our low-down 
Chinese hoMsei)oat. SonK'tiiing in the sky and the vegetation 
along the canal bank had recalled the scenes of boyhood days and 
it seemed, as we looked aslant up the bank with its fringe of grass, 
that we were gliding along Whitewater creek through familiar 
meadows and that standing uj) would bring the old honu^ in sight. 
That instant there gli(h'd into view, framed in the doorway and 
projected high against the tinted sky above the setting sun, a 
giant water buffalo standing motionless as a statue on the summit 



CHINESE LABOURERS 209 

of a huge grave mound, lifted fully 10 feet above the field. But 
in a flash this was replaced by a companion scene, with its beauti- 
ful setting, which had been as suddenly fixed on the memory 
fourteen years before in the far-away Trossachs, when our coach, 
hurriedly rounding a sharp turn in the hills, suddenly exposed a 
wild ox of Scotland similarly thrust against the sky from a small 
but isolated rocky simimit, and then, outspeeding the wireless, 
recollection crossed two oceans and an intervening continent, and 
brought us back to China before a speed of 5 miles per hour could 
move the first picture across the narrow doorway. 

It was through the fields about Tsangkow that the stalwart 
freighters referred to earlier (Fig. 27) passed us on one of the 
paths leading from Kiaochow through unnumbered country vil- 
lages, already 11 miles on their way with their wheelbarrows 
loaded with matches made in Japan. Many of the wheelbarrow 
men seen in Shanghai and other cities are from Shantung families. 
During the harvest season, too, many of these people go west and 
north into Manchuria seeking employment, returning to their 
homes in winter. 

Alexander Hosie, in his book on Manchuria, states that from 
Chefoo alone more than 20,000 Chinese labourers cross to Newch- 
w^ang every spring by steamer, others finding their way there by 
junks or other means, so that after the harvest season 8,000 more 
return by steamer to Chefoo than left by that route in the spring, 
from which he concludes that Shantung annually supplies Man- 
churia with agricultural labour to the extent of 30,000 men. 

The average condition of wheat in Shantung during this dry 
season, and nearing maturity, is seen in Fig. 111. It stands rather 
more than 3 feet high, as indicated by our umbrella between the 
rows. Beyond the wheat and to the right, grave mounds serrate 
the sky-line. No hills were in sight, for we were in the broad plain 
built up from the sea between the two mountain islands forming 
the highlands of Shantung. 

On May 22nd we were in the fields north of Kiaochow, some 60 
miles by rail west from Tsingtao, but within the neutral zone 
extending 30 miles back from the high water line of the bay of the 
same name. Here the Germans had built a broad macadam road 
after the best European type, but over it were passing the vehicles 
of forty centuries ago as seen in Fig. 112. It is doubtful if the 



210 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

resistance to travel experienced by these men on the better road 
is sufficiently less than that on the old paths to convince them that 
the cost of construction and maintenance is worth while until 
vehicles and the price of labour change. It may appear strange 
that with a nation of so many millions and with so long a history, 
roads have persisted as little more than beaten footpaths; but 
modern methods of transportation remained physical impossi- 
bilities to every people until the science of the last century opened 




Fio. 111. — Field of wheat in Shantung, noaring maturity in a season of unusual 

drought. 

the way. Throughout their history the burdens of these people 
have been carried largely on foot, mostly on the feet of men, and 
of single men wherever the load could be advantageously divided. 
Animals have been supplemental burden bearers, but, as with the 
men, they have carried the load directly on their own feet, the 
mode least disturbed by inequalities of road surface. 

For adaptability to the worst road conditions no vehicle equals 
the wheelbarrow, progressing by one wheel and two feet. No 
vehicle is used more in China, if the carrying pole is excepted, and 
no wheelbarrow in the world permits so high an efficiency of 



VEHICLES 



211 



human power as the Chinese, as must be clear from Fig. 27, where 
nearly the whole load is balanced on the axle of a high, massive 
wheel with broad tyre. A shoulder band from the handles of the 
barrow relieves the strain on the hands and, when the load or the 
road is heavy, men or animals may aid in drawing, or even, when 
the wind is favourable, it is not unusual to hoist a sail to gain 
propelling power. It is only in northern China, and then in the 
more level portions, where there are few or no canals, that carts 




Fig. 112. -The vehicles and other mean.s of transport as used for centuries now 
travelling on a modern road of German construction, Kiaochow. See also 
Fig. 71. 



are extensively used. Most of the heavy carts, especially those in 
Manchuria, seen in Fig. 182, have the wheels framed rigidly to the 
axle which revolves with them, the bearing being in the bed of the 
cart. 

In the development and utilization of inland waterways no 
people have approached the Chinese. In land transportation they 
have clearly followed the line of least resistance for individual 
initiative, so characteristic of industrial China. 

There are Government courier or postal roads which connect 



212 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 



Peking with the most distant parts of the Empire - twenty-one 
are usually enumerated. These, as far as practicable, take the 
shortest route, are often cut into the mountain sides and even pass 
through tunnels. In the plains regions these roads may be 60 to 75 
feet wide, paved and occasionally bordered by rows of trees. In 
some cases, too, signal towers are erected at intervals of 3 miles, 
and there are inns along the way, relay posts and stations for 
soldiers. 
We have spoken of planting grain in rows and in hills in the 



l^^^^^yUHlU^^^^^^^^^^^^^t. 


. ^ 


*^ 


!i »1»> 4 


^y^^ 


___| 


■ 


■ 


01 


WM 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 




Hp 


• ;\ ''A 


'^^H 


^^^^HHI 


m 


»- 


'M" 


'^H 


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HEt^^^^m!^ 


S^TS' 






i^M 


^^^^B' 


■';:■■■■,;., 








HHLij 


■ 


t 


m 


lljl 



Fia. 113. - VV'lieat ])lanted in liills iiikI in rows, ^ j^ 

apart and the hills 16 inches, covering feet. 



i\vs being 30 inches 



row. In Fig. 113 is a field with the rows planted in pairs, the 
members being 16 inches apart, and together occupying 30 inches. 
The space between each pair is also 30 inches, making 5 feet in all. 
This makes practicable frequent hoeing, begun early in the spring 
and repeated after every rain. It also makes possible the feeding 
of the plants when they can utilize food to the best advantage, 
and the repetition of the feeding if (h^sirable. Besides, the ground 
in the wider space may be fitted and fertilized, and another crop 
planted before the first is removed. The hills alternate in the rows, 
and are 24 to 26 inches from centre to centre. 

The planting may be done by hand or with a drill such as that 



SEED-DRILL 



213 



in Fig. 114, ingenious in the simple mechanism which permits 
planting in hills. The husbandman had just returned from the 
field with the drill on his shoulder when we mot him at the door 
of his village home. He explained to us the construction and 
operation of the drill and permitted the photograph to be taken. 
In the drill there was a heavy-laden weight swinging free from a 
point above the space between the openings leading to the respec- 
tive drill feet. When planting, the operator rocks the drill from 
side to side, causing the weight to hang first over one and then 




Fig. 114. -Double row seed-drill, just returning from the fields to the village 

home. 



over the other opening, thus securing alternation of hills in each 
pair of rows. 

Counting the heads of wheat in the hill in a number of fields 
we found that they ranged between 20 and 100, the distance 
between the rows and between the hills being as stated above. 
There were always a larger number of stalks per hill where the 
water capacity of the soil was large, where the ground water was 
near the surface, and where the soil was evidently of good quality. 
This may have been partly the result of stooling, but we have little 
doubt that judgment was exercised in planting, sowing less seed 
on the lighter soils where less moisture was available. In the 
piece just referred to, in the illustration, an average hill contained 



214 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

46 stalks, and the number of kernels in a head varied between 
20 and 30. Taking Richardson's estimate of 12,000 kernels of 
wheat to the pound, this field would yield about 12 bushels of 
wheat per acre in this unusually dry season. Our interpreter, 
whose parents lived near Kaomi, four stations further west, stated 
that in 1901, one of their best seasons, farmers there secured 
yields as high as 875 catty per legal mow, which is at the rate of 
116 bushels per acre. Such a yield on small areas highly fertilized 
and carefully tilled, when the rainfall is ample or where irrigation 
is practised, is quite possible, and in the Kiangsu province we 
observed individual small fields which would certainly approach 
close to this figure. 

Further along in our journey of the day we came upon a field 
where three, one of them a boy of fourteen years, were hoeing and 
thinning millet and maize. The usual yield of maize was set at 
420 to 480 catty per mow, and that of millet at 600 catty, or 60 
to 68-5 bushels of maize and 96 bushels of millet, of 50 pounds, per 
acre, and the usual price would make the gross earnings $23.48 
to $26.83 per acre for the maize, and $30 96, gold, for the millet. 

It was evident when walking through these fields that the 
autumn-sowed grain was standing the drought far better than the 
barley planted in the spring, quite likely because of the deeper 
and stronger development of root system made possible by the 
longer period of growth, and partly because the wheat had made 
much of its growth earlier and utilized water that had fallen before 
the barley was planted. Farmers here are very particular to hoe 
their grain, beginning in the early spring, and always after rains, 
thoroughly appreciating the efficiency of earth mulches. Their 
hoe, seen in Fig. 115, is peculiarly well adapted to its purpose, the 
broad blade being so hung that it draws nearly parallel with the 
surface, cutting shallow and permitting the soil to drop practically 
upon the place from which it was loosened. These hoes are made 
in three parts; a wooden handle, a long, strong and heavy iron 
socket shank, and a blade of steel. The blade is detachable and 
different forms and sizes of blades may be used on the same shank. 
The mulch-producing blades may have a cutting edge 13 inches 
long and a width of 9 inches. 

At short intervals on either hand, along the 250 miles of railway 
between Tsingtao and Tsinan, were observed many piles of earth 



HOEING GRAIN 



215 



compost distributed in the fields. One of these piles is seen in 
Fig. 116. They were sometimes on unplanted fields, in other 
cases they occurred among the growing crops soon to be harvested, 
or where another crop was to be planted between the rows of one 
already on the ground. Some of these piles were 6 feet high. 




Fig. 115. -Method of using the broad, heavy hoe in producing surface mulch, 
as seen in Shantung. 



All were built in cubical form with flat top and carefully plastered 
with a layer of earth mortar which sometimes cracked on drying, 
as seen in the illustration. The purpose of this careful shaping and 
plastering we did not learn, although our interpreter stated it was 
to prevent the compost from being appropriated for use on adja- 
cent fields. Such a finish would have the effect of a seal, showing 
if the pile had been disturbed, but we suspect other advantages 



21G 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 



are sought by the treatment which involves so large an amount 
of labour. 

Tlic amount of this earth compost pr('pared and usod annually 
in Shantung is largo, as indicated by the cases cited, where more 
than 5,000 pounds, in one instance, and 7,000 pounds in another, 
were applied per acre for one crop. When two or more crops are 
grown the same year on the same groimd, each is fertilized, hence 
from 3 to 6 or more tons may be applied to each cultivated acre. 
The methods of preparing compost and of fertilizing in Kiangsu, 




Flo. no. 



Curc'fiiUy plasteroil carlli (oiii|i,ini .si.k 
tributioii, .Sliaiiluiig. 



.1 III lllr [l.'hi 



ing dis- 



Chokiang and Kwangtung })roviiuH\s huxe hvm described. In this 
part of Shantung, in Chihli and north in Manchuria as far as 
Mukden, the methods are materially different and if possible even 
more laborious, but clearly rational and effective. Here nearly 
all if not all fertilizer compost is ])re])ared in the villages and 
carried to the fields, however distant these may be. 

Rev. T. J. League very kindly accompanied us to Chengyang 
on the railway, from which we walked some 2 miles back to a 
prosperous rural village to see their methods of preparing this 
compost fertilizer. It was toward the close of the afternoon before 
we reached the village, and from all directions husbandmen were 



NATIONAL RESOURCES 



217 



returning from the fields, some with hoes, some with ploughs, 
some with drills over their shoulders and others leading donkeys or 
cattle, and similar customs obtain in Japan, as seen in Fig. 117. 
These were mostly the younger men. When we reached the village 
streets the older men, all bare-headed, as were those returning 
from the fields, and usually with their queues tied about the crown, 
were chatting, enjoying their pipes of tobacco. 

In the matter of conservation of national resources here is one 




Fia. 117. - Home after the day's work, in Jupan. 

of the greatest opportunities open to all civilized nations. What 
might not be done in the United States with a fund of $57,000,000 
annually, the market price of the raw tobacco leaf, and the land, 
the labour and the capital expended in getting the product to 
the men who puff, breathe and perspire the noxious product into 
the air everyone must breathe, and who bespatter the streets, 
sidewalks, the floor of every public place and conveyance, and 
befoul the million spittoons, smoking-rooms and smoking-cars, all 
unnecessary and should be uncalled for, but whose installation 
and upkeep the non-user as well as the user is forced to pay for, and 



218 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

this in a country of, for and by the people. This costly, filthy, 
selfish tobacco habit should be outgrown. Let it begin in every 
new home, where the mother helps the father in refusing to set 
the example, and let its indulgence be absolutely ])rohihited to 
everyone while in pul)lie school and to all in e(hicational institu- 
tions. 

Mr. Leagiu^ had been given a letter of introduction to one of 
the leading farnun's of the village, and it chanced that as we 
reached tlie eutranceway to his home we were met by his son, just 
returning from the fields with his (h-ill on his shoulder, and it is he 
standing in the illustration, Fig. 114, holding the letter of introduc- 
tion in his hand. After we had taken this ])hotograph and another 
one looking tlown the narrow street from the same j)()int, we were 
led to the small 0])en court of the home, ])(Mhaj)s 10 by 80 feet, 
upon which all doors of the one-storied structures opened. It was 
dry and bare of everything green, but a row of very tall handsome 
trees, close relatives of our cottonwood, with trunks '50 feet to the 
limbs, looked down into the court over the roofs of the low 
thatched houses. Here we met the father and grandfather of the 
man with the drill, so that, with the boy carrying the baby in his 
arms, who had met his father in the street gateway, there were 
four generations of males at our conference. There were wonu'n 
and girls in the household, but custom re(juires them to renuiin in 
retirenu'ut on such occasions. 

A low narrow four-legged bench, not unlike our carpenter's saw- 
horse, 5 feet long, was brought into the court as a seat, which our 
host and we occupied in conunon. We had been sin\ilarly received 
at the home of Mrs. Wu in C'hekiaiig province. On our right was 
the open doorway to the kitchen 'u\ wiiich stood, erect and straight, 
the tall s])are figure of the patriarch oi the household, his eyes still 
shining black but with hair and long thin straggling beard a uni- 
form dull ashen grey. He seemed to have assiuued the duties of 
cook, for while we were there he lighted the fire in the kitchen and 
was busy, but was always the final oracle on any matter of dilYer- 
ence of opinion between the younger men regarding answ^'rs 
to questions. Two sleeping apartments adjoining the kitchen, 
through whose wide kang beds the waste heat from the cooking 
was conveyed, as described on page 127, completed this side of 
the court. On our left was the main street completely shut oft" by a 



COMPOSTS 219 

solid earth wall as high as the eaves of the house, while in front of 
us, adjoining the street, was the manure midden, a compost pit 6 
feet deep and some 8 feet square. A low opening in the street wall 
permitted the pit to be emptied and to receive earth and stubble or 
refuse from the fields for composting. Against the pit and without 
partition, but cut off from the court, was the home of the pigs, 
both under a common roof continuous with a closed structure 
joining with the sleeping apartments, while behind us and along 
the alleyway by which we had entered were other dwelling and 
storage compartments. Thus was the large family of four genera- 
tions provided with a peculiarly private open court where they 
could work and come out for sun and air, both, from our standards, 
too meagrely provided in the houses. 

We had come to learn more of the methods of f ertihzing practised 
by these people. The manure midden was before us and the piles 
of earth brought in from the fields, for use in the process, were 
stacked in the street, where we had photographed them at the 
entrance, as seen in Fig. 118. There a father, with his pipe, and 
two boys stand at the extreme left; beyond them is a large pile 
of earth brought into the village and carefully stacked in the 
narrow street; on the other side of the street, at the corner of the 
first building, is a pile of partly fermented compost thrown from 
a pit behind the walls. Further along in the street, on the same 
side, is a second large stack of soil where two boys are standing 
at either end. In front of the tree, on the left side of the street, 
stands a third boy, near him a small donkey and still another 
boy. Beyond this boy stands a third large stack of soil, while 
still beyond and across the way is another pile partly composted. 
Notwithstanding the cattle in the preceding illustration, the don- 
key, the men, the boys, the three long high stacks of soil and the 
two piles of compost, the ten rods of narrow street possessed a 
width of available travel-way and a cleanliness which would 
appear impossible. Each farmer's household had its stack of soil 
in the street, and in walking through the village we passed dozens 
of men turning and mixing the soil and compost, preparing it for 
the field. 

The compost pit in front of where we sat was two-thirds filled. 
In it had been placed all the manure and waste of the household 
and street, all stubble and waste roughage from the field, all 



220 



TN THE SUA NT TIN a PllOVINCE 




COMPOSTS 221 

ashes not to be applied directly, and some of the soil stacked 
in the street. Sufficient water was added at intervals to keep 
the contents completely saturated and nearly submerged, the 
object being to control the character of fermentation taking 
place. 

The capacity of these compost pits is determined by the amount 
of land served, and the period of composting is made as long as 
possible, the aim being to have the fibre of all organic material 
completely broken down, the result being a product of the con- 
sistency of mortar. 

When it is near the time for applying the compost to the field, 
or of feeding it to the crop, the fermented product is removed in 
waterproof carrying baskets to the floor of the court, to the yard, 
such as seen in Fig. 110, or to the street, where it is spread to dry, 
to be mixed with fresh soil, more ashes, and repeatedly turned 
and stirred to bring about complete aeration and to hasten the 
processes of nitrification. During all these treatments, whether in 
the compost pit or on the nitrification floor, the fermenting organic 
matter in contact with the soil is converting plant food elements 
into soluble plant food substances in the form of potassium, calcium 
and magnesium nitrates and soluble phosj)hatcs of one or another 
form, perhaps of the same bases and possibly others of organic 
type. If there is time and favourable temperature and moisture 
conditions for these fermentations to take place in the soil of the 
field before the crop will need it, the compost may be carried 
direct from the pit to the field and spread broadcast, to be ploughed 
under. Otherwise the material is worked and reworked, with more 
water added if necessary, until it becomes a rich complete ferti- 
lizer, allowed to become dry and then finely pulverized, sometimes 
using stone rollers drawn over it by cattle, the donkey or by hand. 
The large numbers of stacks of compost seen in the fields between 
Tsingtao and Tsinan were of this type. They had been laboriously 
prepared in the villages before being transported to the fields, 
stacked and plastered, to be ready for use at next planting. 

In the early days of European history, before modern chemistry 
had provided the cheaper and more expeditious method of pro- 
ducing potassium nitrate for the manufacture of gunpowder and 
fireworks, the nitre-farming to which much land and effort were 
devoted was no other than a specific application of this most 



222 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 

ancient Chinese practice and probably imported from China. 
While it was not until 1877 to 1879 that men of science came to 
know that the processes of nitrification, so indispen^^able to agri- 
culture, are due to germ life, in simple justice to the plain farmers 
of the world, to those who throiigli all the ages from Adam down, 
living close to Nature and working through her and with her, have 
fed the world, it should be recognized that there have been those 
among them who have grasped th(\se essential vital truths and 
have kept them alive in the practices of their day. And so we find 
it recorded in history as far back as 1G8G that Judge Samuel 
Lewell copied upon the cover of his journal a practical man's 
recipe for making salt})etre beds, in which it was directed, among 
other things, that there should be achled to it 'mother of petre.' 
It meant, in Judge Lewell's understanding, simply soil from an old 
nitre bed, but in the mind of the man who applied the maternity 
prefix, - mother, - it must have meant a vital germ contained in 
the soil, carried with it, capable of reproducing its kind and of 
perpetuating its chara('teristic work, behiugiug to the same 
category with the old, familiar, homely germ, 'mother' of vinegar. 
So, too, with the old cheesenuiker who grasped the conception 
which led to the long-time practice of washing the walls of a new 
cheese factory with water from an old factory of the sanu' type, 
he must have been led by analogies of experience with things seen 
to realize that he was here dealing with a vital factor. Hundreds, 
of course, have practised empirically, but some one preceded 
with the essential thought and it is small credit to men of our 
time who, after ten or twenty years of technical training, having 
their attention directed to a something to be seen, and armed with 
compound microscopes which permit them to see with the physical 
eye the 'mother of petre,' arrogate to themselves the discovery 
of a great truth. Much more modest would it be and nuich more 
in the spirit of giving credit where credit is due to admit that, 
after long doubting the existence of such an entity, we have suc- 
ceeded in confirming the truth of a great discovery .which belongs 
to an untiamed genius of the past, or perhaps to a hundred of them 
who, working with life's processes and familiar with them through 
long intimatt; association, saw in these invisible processes analogies 
that revealed to them the essential trutli in such fullness as to 
enable them to build upon it an unfailing practice. 



NITRE-FARMING 223 

There is another practice followed by the Chinese, connected 
with the formation of nitrates in soils, which again emphasizes 
the national trait of saving and turning to use any and every thing 
worth while. Our attention was called to this practice by the Rev. 
A. E. Evans of Shimking, Szechwan province. It rests upon the 
tendency of the earth floors of dwellings to become heavily charged 
with calcium nitrate through the natural processes of nitrification. 
Calcium nitrate being deliquescent absorbs moisture sufficiently 
to dissolve and make the floor wet and sticky. Dr. Evans' atten- 
tion was drawn to the wet floor in his own house, which he at 
first ascribed to insufficient ventilation, but which was unaffected 
by any improvement in that respect. The father of one of his 
assistants, whose business consisted in purchasing the soil of such 
floors for producing potassium nitrate, used so much in China in 
the manufacture of fireworks and gunpowder, explained his diffi- 
culty and suggested the remedy. 

This man goes from house to house through the village, purchas- 
ing the soil of floors which have thus become overcharged. He pro- 
cures a sample, tests it and announces what he will pay for the 
surface 2, 3 or 4 inches, the price sometimes being as high as 50 
cents for the privilege of removing the top layer of the floor, which 
the proprietors must replace. He leaches the soil removed, to 
recover the calcium nitrate, and then pours the leachings through 
plant ashes containing potassium carbonate, for the purpose of 
transforming the calcium nitrate into the potassium nitrate or 
saltpetre. Dr. Evans learned that during the four months pre- 
ceding our interview this man had produced sufficient potassium 
nitrate to bring his sales up to $80, Mexican. It was necessary 
for him to make a two-days' journey to market his product. In 
addition he paid a licence fee of 80 cents per month. He must 
purchase his fuel ashes and hire the services of two men. 

When the nitrates which accumulate in the floors of dwellings 
are not collected for this purpose the soil goes to the fields to be 
used directly as a fertilizer, or it may be worked into compost. 
In the course of time the earth used in the village walls and even 
in the construction of the houses may disintegrate so as to require 
removal, but in all such cases, as with the earth brick used in the 
kangs, the value of the soil has improved for composting and is 
generally so used. This improvement of the soil will not appear 



221 IN THE SUA NT UNO PROVINCE 

strange wlicii it. is sliitcd ihut Hticli niiiicrials iirc usii.i.lly from ihv 
siil)soil, vvliosc |)liysica.l cotidil ion would itn|>rov<' vvlicti exposed 
to the weather, convert iiig it- in fact into ati uneroj)[)e(l virgin soil. 

We were unable to secure delinitc (hita as to the chemical 
composition of these com|)ost.s and caimot say v^ha.t junounts of 
Jivailahh' plant, food the Shantung furniers an^ annually returning 
to their lields. There can he little douht, however, that, the 
amounts are (piite ecpial to those removed hy the crojw. The soils 
a|)|)eare<l well su|»plied with organic matter and the colour of the 
foliages a?id the general asjx'ct. of crops indicated good feeding. 

The family with whom we talked in the village |)lace their 
usua.l yields of wheat at ^'l^) catty of grain and I ,()()() catty of straw 
per juow,' the grain being worth 1^5 strings of cash and the straw 
J2 to 14 strings, a, string of cash being 40 cents, Mexican, at this 
tim(>. 'i'heir yields of bea,ns were such a,s to give them a return 
of .■>() st ri?)gs of cash for the grain and »S to 10 strings for the straw. 
Small millet, usually yielded 150 catty of grain, worth 25 strings 
of cash, per mow, and HOO cutty of straw worth 10 to 1 1 strings of 
cash; while the yields of large millet they |)lace(l at 400 catty ])(t 
mow, worth 25 strings of cash, and 1,000 catty (»f st ra,\v worth 12 
to 14 strings of cash. Stating these amounts in bushels per acre 
and ill our currency, tlu^ yield of wheat was 42 bushels of grain and 
(»,000 pounds of st.ra.w |)er acre, having a (^ash value of li)!27.O0 for 
the grain and $ 10.0(1 for the straw. The soy bean crop follows 
the wheat , giving an ad<lit ional return of If!2.'l.22 for the beans a.n(l 
!ti;(!.07 for the stra-w, making the gross earning for the two crops 
.1|!(>7..'M per acre. T\w yield of small millet was 54 bushels of seed 
and 4,.S00 pounds of straw [)er acre, worth $27.05) and $8.12 for 
seed and straw respectively, while the kaoliang or large millet 
gav(^ a yi(4d of bS bush(4s of grain and (1,000 |)ounds of stalks per 
acre, worth $!'.>. ."'.5 for the grain and $I0.0(» for the stra.w. 

A crop of wheat like the one stated, if no ])a.rt of the plant, 
food contained in the grain or straw were returned to the Held, 
would deplete t he soil to tlu^ extent of about DO pounds of nitrogen, 
15 po\mds of phosphorus and (15 |)ounds of ])otassium; and the 
croj) of soy beans, if it als(» were entir(4y removed, would reduce 
these thre(> })la.nt food (4ements in the soil to th(^ extent of about 
240 pounds of nitrogen, .'t.'i jjounds of })hos])horns an<l 102 ikmukIs 
* TIkmi" mow was fonr-tiiirdH of tlie legal Htaiulard mow. 



]MU)l)lJ(;iNO POWKIt OV TIIK SOIL '^25 

of potassium, on the basis of 45 biislids (^f Ijcjuis jiikI 5,'1()() poiuidH 
of stems and loavos jxt aero, aHHUininf^ thai tlie beads added no 
Jiitrof^en to the soil, which is of (Hairsc; not true. 'IHijs household of 
laniKTs, tlierefore, in order to maintain this |)roduein{f |)(jwer in 
their soil, hav(; b(!en (;<nnpeH(!d to n.'turn U) it anmially, in one; form 
or another, not less than 48 ])ounds of phospiiorus and 1G7 })ounds 
of potassium jx'r acre. The 'VM) })outids of nitrogen tliey would 
liave to return in th(^ form oi orj^anic; matter or aeeumuhite it from 
th(! atmosphere, through the instrumentalil-y of 1,heir soy bean 
crop or some other iej^ume. It lias alrea(Jy been stated that they 
do add more than rj,()()() to 7,000 pounds of dry eomp(;st, wliieh, 
rejM'ated for a second ero|), woidd make an anmial applieation of 
5 to 7 tons (jf dry compost jx-r acre anmially. 'I'liey do use, in 
ad(Jiti(jn to this compost, large; amounts of bean and jjeamit cake, 
which carry all the jjhmt food elenujnts d(!riv(;d from the soil which 
are contained in the b(!ans and the peanuts, if the vines are buj, 
or if the stems of th(! beans are burned for fuel, most of th(; plant 
food elements will be returned to tin; held, and they have doubt- 
less l<!arned how to (completely r(^store th(!sc elements. 

Th(! roads made by tin; (j(Tmans in the vicinity of 'I'singtao 
(inabhid us to trav(!l by ricksha into 1 Ik; adjoining country, and on 
one such tri|) w(! visitefl u village mill for grinding soy lieans and 
peamits in the; mamdaeture of oil, and Kig. i I'.) shows the sl,on(; 
roller, 4 feet in diameter and 2 f(!et thick, which is revolved about 
a vertical axis on a circular stone plate, drawn by a donkey, 
crushing the kernels partly by its weight and partly l»y a twisting 
motion, for the arm upon which the roller revolves is very short. 
After th(! meal had been ground the oil was expressed in essentially 
the same way as that described for the cotton seed, but the bean 
and peanut cakes are made much larger than the; cotton-seed 
cak(,'S, about \H inches in diameter and '.'> to 4 incthes thick. Two of 
these cakes are seen in Fig. 120, standing on <'dg(; outside the mill 
in an orderly ch'an court. It is in this form that bean cake; is 
exported in large; cpaantities tfj different i)arts of China and .]a[)an, 
for use as a fertilizer, and very recently to Kurope for both stock 
food and fertilizer. 

Nowhere in this province;, nor furtln-r north, did we see the 
large terra-cotta recej)tacl(!S so extensively us(;d in th(J south for 
storing human excreta. In these drier climates some method of 

F.F.C. H 



226 IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 




Flu. 1 111. .Sldiio null fill' fj;riniliii;,' soy Ix'iiiis aiul peanuts, Slinn i llll^. 

desiccation is practised. We found the garxleners in the vicinity 
of Tsingtao with quantities of the fertilizer stacked under matting 
shelters in the desiccated condition. The next illustration, Fig. 
121, shows one of these piles being fitted for the garden, its 




Flu. 120. - Two larae poaiui( calios niul a pnpor doniijiilin U<r i-orita,iiimg the oili 
outside a village mill, Shantung. 



AMOUNT OF SOIL ADDED 



227 



thatched shelter standing behind the grandfather of a household. 
His grandson was carrying the ])r(^[)are(l fertilizer to the garden 
area seen in Fig. 122, where the father was worl<iiig it into the 
soil. The greatest j)ains an^ taken, both in reducing tin; ])roduct 
to a fine powder and in spreading and incorporating it with the 
soil, for one of the maxims of soil management is to make each 
square foot of field or garden the equal of every other in its power 
to produce. In this manner each little holding is mad(! to yield the 
highest returns jjossible under the conditions the husbandman is 
able to control. 




Fig. 121. - I'uKiri/.iiig doKicciitcd hurnuii excnita preparatory for uwo in garden 
fertilization, Shantung. 



From one portion of the area being fitted, a crop of artemisia 
had been harvested, giving a gross return at the rate of $73.19 per 
acre, and from another leeks had been taken, bringing a gross 
return of $43.80 per acre. Chinese celery was the crop for which 
the ground was now being fitted. 

The apjjlication of soil as a fertilizer to the fields of (Jhina, 
whether derived from the subsoil or from the silts and organic 
matter of canals and rivers, must have played an important part 
in the permanency of agriculture in the Far East, for all such 
additions have been positive accretions to the efl'ective soil, 
increasing its depth and carrying to it all plant food elements. If 
not more than one-half of the weight of compost applied to the 



228 



IN THE SHANTUNG PROVINCE 



fields of Shantung is highly fertilized soil, the rates of application 
observed would, in a thousand years, add more than 2,000,000 
pounds per acre. This represents about the volume of soil we turn 
with the plough in our ordinary tillage operations, and may carry 
more than 6,000 pounds of nitrogen, 2,000 pounds of phosphorus 
and more than 60,000 pounds of potassium. 




Fia. 122. 



Gardener thoroughly incorporating fertilizer with his soil preparatory 
to planting a second crop of the season, Shantung. 



When v/e left our hotel by ricksha for the steamer, to return to 
Shanghai, we observed a boy of thirteen or fourteen years appar- 
ently following, sometimes a little ahead, sometimes behind, 
usually keeping the sidewalk but slackening his pace whenever the 
ricksha man came to a walk. It was a full mile to the wharf. The 
boy evidently knew the sailing schedule and judged by the valise 
in front that we were to take the out-going steamer and that he 
might possibly earn 2 cents, Mexican, the usual fee for taking a 



THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 229 

valise aboard the steamer. Twenty men at the wharf might be 
waiting for the job, but he was taking the chance with the mile 
down and back thrown in, and all for less than 1 cent in U.S. 
currency, equivalent at the time to about twenty 'cash.' As we 
neared the steamer the lad closed up behind, but strong and eager 
men were watching. Twice he was roughly thrust aside and 
before the ricksha stopped a man of stalwart frame seized the 
valise and, had we not observed the boy thus unobtrusively 
entering the competition, he would have had only his trouble for 
his pains. Thus intense was the struggle for existence and thus did 
a mere lad put himself effectively into it. True to breeding and 
example he had spared no labour to win and was surprised but 
grateful to receive more than he had expected. 



XI 

ORIENTALS CROWD BOTH TIME AND 
SPA(!E 

TIME is a function of every life j)n)C('S.s, as it is of every physi- 
cal, chemical and mental reaction, and the lnisl);ui(hnan is 
conipelletl to shape his operations so as to conform with the time 
requirements of Jiis crops. The oriental farmer is a time econo- 
mizer beyond any otiier. lie utilizes the first ntid last minute and 
all tliat are l)etw(>en. The foreigner accuses the Chinaman of being 
alwiiys 'long on time,' never in a fret, never in a hurry. And why 
should he be when he leads time by the forelock, and uses all there is? 

The customs and practices of these Farthest East people in 
tlieir mamifacture of fertiliz(>rs in the form of earth comjMists for 
tlieir helds, and in their use of altered subsoils which have S(U-ve(l 
in their kangs, village walls and dwellings, arc all instances in which 
they profoundly shorten the t'uno required in the field to affect the 
ne(u>ssary chemical, physical and bi()l()gical reactions. Not only do 
they thus increase their t ime a.ss(>ts, but they add, in efTect, to their 
land area by producing these changes outside their lields, at the 
same time giving their crops the immediately active soil products. 

Their compost practices have been of the greatest consequence 
to them, both in their extremely wet, rice-culture methods, and 
in their 'dry-farming' methods in parts of the coimtry where the 
soil moisture is too scanty to permit ra|)id f(>rmentation under 
field conditions. Western agriculturists have not suiliciently 
a})preciated the fact that the most rapid growth of plant food 
snl)sta.n('es in the soil cannot occur at the same time and })lace 
with th(! most rapid croj) increase, because both ])r()cesses draw 
upoii the available soil moisture, soil air and soluble potassium, 
cahnum, })hosphorus and nitrogen compounds. Whether this 
fundamental ])rinciple of practical agriculture is written in their 
litiMature or not it is most iiuh'libly li.xed in i-heir practice. If we 
and they can ])erpetuate the essentials of this |)ra.ctice at a large 
saving of human elTort, or per{)etually secure the final r(>sidt in 
some more expeditious and less laborious way, most im])orta.nt 
progress will luive been made. 

When we went north to the Shantung province the Kiangsu 

230 



COTTON SOWED IN WHEAT 231 

and. Chekiang farmers wore engaged in another oi their time- 
saving practices. This was the ])lanting of cotton in wheat fields 
before the wheat was quite ready to harvest. In the sections of 
these two provinces which we visited most of the wheat and barh^y 
were sowed broa(h;ast on narrow raises! lands, mmxr, 5 feet wide, 
with liurrows betw(M'n, after the matuier seen in Fig. 123, in the 
immediate foreground of which is shown a reservoir on whose 
bank is installed one of the four-man foot-power irrigation pumps 
in use to flood the nursery rice bed close by on the right. The 
narrow lands of broadcasted wheat extend back from the reservoir 




Flo. 123. - l..oolviiig across reservoir and four-man foot-powor puini) at fields of 
grain sowed liroudcast in narrow bods. 

toward the farmsteads which dot the landscape, and on tlie left 
stands one of the J)ump shelters near the canal bai)k. 

To save time, or lengthen the growing season of the cotton 
which was to follow, this seed was sown broadcast among the 
grain (m the surface, some ten to fifteen days before the wheat 
would be harvested. To cover the seed the soil in the furrows 
between the beds had been sj)aded loose to a depth of 4 or 5 
inches, finely pulverized, and then with a spade evenly scattered 
over the bed, in such a way as to allow it to sift down among the 
grain, covering the seed. This loo.se earth, so apj)]ied, acts as a 
mulch to conserve the capillary moisture, and permit the soil to 



•232 ORIENTALS CROWD TIME AND SPACE 

boconio sulVu'iontly tlaniji to gonninate tho sootl before the wheat 
is liarvostod. The next ilhistrati(ni. Fig. 121, shows our interpreter 
standing in another held of wheat in which cotton was being sowed 
in the manner described, altliough the stand of grain was very 
close and shoulder high, making it not an easy task tntlier to 
sow the seed or to scatter sutlicient soil to cover it. 

\\'hen we had returned t'roui Shautinig this piei'c of grain had 




Fir.. \-i. - Field oi wliOiU with crniii l ft'i't S iiu lu-s liigh, nenring time of harvest, 
ill wliicli odUdii is plaiitod. 



been harvested, giving a yield of 95-6 bushels of wheat and 3-5 
tons of straw per acre, conn>uted from the statement of the owner 
that 400 catty of grain and 500 catty of straw^ had been taken 
from the beds measuring 1,050 square feet. On the morning of 
May 29th the ])hotograj)h for Fig. 125 was taken, showing the 
same area after the wheat had been harvested and th(> cotton was 
up, the young plants showing sliglitly through the short stubble. 
These beds had already been once treated with liquid fertilizer. A 
little later the plants would be hoed and thinned to a stand of 
about one plant per square foot of surface. There were thirty- 



COTTON SOWED IN WJIEAT 233 

seven days between the taking of tlif; two photographs, and cer- 
tainly tliirty days had boon add^^d to the cotton crop by this 
method of planting, over what would have been available if the 
grain had been first harvested and the field fitted before planting. 
It will be observed that the cotton follows the wheat without 
j>loug}iirig, but the soil was deep, naturally open, and a layer of 
nearly two inches of loose fartb liatl bf-cn })laced over the seed at 




Fig. I2o. - View of same field as Fig. 124, after the grain hacj been cut, arjd r'/noM ij 
and the cotton sown in it was up. 

the time of planting. Besides, the ground would be deeply worked 
with the two- or four-tined hoe, at the time of thinning. 

Starting cotton in the wheat in the manner described is but a 
special case of a general practice widely in vogue. The growing of 
multiple crops is the rule throughout these countries wherever the 
climate permits. Sometimes as many as three crops occupy the 
same field in recurrent rows, but of different dates of planting and 
in diflerent stages of maturity. Reference has been made to the 
overlapping and alternation of cucumbers with greens. The 
general practice of planting nearly all crops in rows lends itself 
readily to systems of multiple cropping, and these to the fullest 



234 OKIENTALS CROWD TIME AND SPACE 

possible utilization of every minute of the growing season and of 
the time of the family in caring for the crops. In the field, Fig. 126, 
a crop of winter wheat was nearing maturity, a crop of Windsor 
beans was about two-thirds grown, and cotton had just been 
planted, April 22nd. This field had been thrown into ridges some 
5 feet wide with a 12-inch furrow between them. Two rows of 






Fig. 126. - Multiple crops, wheat, Windsor beans and cotton. Wheat ready to 
harvest, beans two-thirds grown, cotton just planted. Upper view looking 
between wheat rows ; lower, looking between bean rows now covering ground. 

wheat 8 inches wide, planted 2 feet between centres, occupied the 
crest of the ridge, leaving a strip 16 inches wide, seen in the upper 
section, (1) for tillage, (2) then fertilization and (3) finally the row 
of cotton planted just before the wheat was harvested. Against 
the furrow on each side was a row of Windsor beans, seen in the 



OTHER MULTIPLE CROPPING 



235 



lower view, hiding the furrow , which was matured some time after 
the wheat was harvested and before the cotton was very large. A 
late autumn crop sometimes follows the windsor beans after a 
period of tillage and fertilization, making four in one year. With 
such a succession fertilization for each crop and an abundance of 
soil moisture are required to give the largest returns from the soil. 
In another plan winter wheat or barley may grow side by side 
with a green crop, such as the 'Chinese clover' {Medicago denticulata, 
Willd.) for soil fertilizer, as was the case in Fig. 127, to be turned 
under and fertilize for a crop of cotton planted in rows on either 
side of a crop of barley. After the barley had been harvested the 




Fig. 127. - Turning urulcr ,\ rrop of "Chinese clover' for green nianitre, grown with 
, barley and to be followed by cotton. 

ground it occupied would be tilled and further fertilized, and when 
the cotton was nearing matiu-ity a crop of rape might be grown, 
from which 'salted cabbage' would be prepared for winter use. 

Multiple crops are grown as far north as Tientsin and Peking, 
generally wheat, maize, large and small millet and soy beans, and 
this, too, where the soil is less fertile and where the annual rainfall 
is only about 25 inches. Fig. 128 shows one of these fields as it 
appeared June 14th, where two rows of wheat and two of large 
millet were planted in alternating pairs, about 28 inches apart. 
The wheat was ready to harvest but the straw was unusually 
short because growing on a light sandy loam in a season of excep- 
tional drought. 

The piles of pulverized dry-earth compost seen between the 



236 ORIENTALS CROWD TIME AND SPACE 



rows had been brought for use on the ground occupied by the 
wheat when that was removed. The wheat would be pulled, tied 
in bundles, taken to the village and the roots cut off, for making 
compost, as in Fig. 129, which shows the family engaged in cut- 
ting the roots from the small bundles of wheat, using a long 
straight knife blade, fixed at one end, and thrust downward upon 
the bundle with lever pressure. These roots, if not used as fuel, 
would be transferred to the compost pit in the enclosure seen in 
Fig. 130, the walls of which were built of earth brick. Here, with 
any other waste litter, manure or ashes, they would be permitted 




Fig. 128. - Multiple crops in Chihli - wheat and sorghum, the wheat ripe, to be 
followed by soy beans. Piles of compost earth for soy beans. 

to decay under water until the fibre had been destroyed, and so 
reduced to a condition in which it could be incorporated with the 
soil and applied to the fields. Thus, rich in soluble plant food with 
nothing to hinder the capillary movement of soil moisture the work 
proceeded outside the field and the changes could occur unimpeded 
and without interfering with the growth of crops on the ground. 
In this system of combined intertillage and multiple cropping the 
oriental farmer takes advantage of whatever good may result from 
rotation or succession of crops, whether these be physical, vito- 
chemical or biological. If plants are mutually helpful through close 
association of their root systems in the soil, as some believe may 



SAVING WHEAT ROOTS 



237 




Fio. 129. 



FiUiiily engaged uj ( iilliiiji, lioin bundles of wlieat, the roots to be 
used in making compost, Chihli. 



be the case, this growth of difl'orent species in close juxtaposition 
would seem to provide the opportunity, but the other advantages 
which have been pointed out are so evident and so important that 
they, rather than this, have doubtless led to the practice described. 




Fio. 130. 



■ Compost .vlu-ltcr and pig pt'u, witli pile of wheat roots stacked at one 
end, for use in making compost, Chihli. 



XII 
RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

THE basal food crop of tlie people of China, Korea and Japan 
is rice, and the moan consumption in Japan, for the five years 
ending 190G, per capita per annum, was 1)02 ])ounds. Of Japan's 
175,428 square miles she devoted, in 190G, 12,856 to the rice crop. 
Her average yield of water rice on 12,534 square miles exceeded 
33 bushels per acre, and the dry land rice averaged 18 bushels per 
acre on 321 H(|Uiire miles. In the Hokkaido, as far north as 
northern Illinois, Japan harvested 1,78(),()()0 bushels of water rice 
from 53,000 acres. 

In Szechwan province, China, Consul-General Hosie places the 
yield of water rice on the plains land at 44 bushels per acre, and 
that of the dry land rice at 22 bushels. Data given lis in China 
show an average yield of 12 bushels ol water rice per acre, while 
the average yield of wheat was 25 bushels ])er acre, the normal 
yield in Japan being about 17 bushels. 

If the rice eaten per capila in China })ro])er and Korea is equal to 
that in .lapjui the animal consumption for the three nations, using 
the rounel munber 300 pounds per capita per annum, would be: 

Population. Consumption. 

China 410,000,000 01,500,000 t(ms 

Korea 12,000,000 1,800,000 tons 

Japan 53,000,000 7,950^000 tons 

Total 475,000,000 71,25^)00 tons 

If the ratio of irrigated to dry land rice in Korea and China 
pro})er is the same as that in Japan, and if the mean yield of rice 
per acre in these countries were 40 bushels for the water rice 
and 20 bushels for the dry land rice, the acreage required to 
give this production would be: 

Area. 
Water rico, Dry land rice, 
sq. miles. sq. miles. 
In Cliina 78,073 4,004 

In Korea 2,285 117 

In Japan 12,534 _321 

92,892 4,442 Total 97,334 

238 



COMPARABLE CONSERVATION 239 

Our observations along the 400 miles of railway in Korea 
between Antung, Seoul and Fusan, suggest that the land under 
rice in this country must be more rather than less than that com- 
puted, and the square miles of canalized land in China, as indi- 
cated on pages 93 to 98, would indicate an acreage of rice for 
her quite as large as estimated. 

In the three main islands of Japan more than 50 per cent of the 
cultivated land produces a crop of water rice each year and 7-96 
per cent of the entire land area of the Empire, omitting far-north 
Karafuto. In Formosa and in southern China large areas produce 
two crops each year. At the large mean yield used in the computa- 
tion the estimated acreage of rice in China proper amounts to 
5-93 per cent of her total area, and this is 7,433 square miles 
greater than the acreage of wheat in the United States in 1907. 
Our yield of wheat, however, was but 19,000,000 tons, Tvhile 
China's output of rice was certainly double and probably three 
times this amount from nearly the same acreage of land. Not- 
withstanding this large production per acre, more than 50 per 
cent, possibly as high as 75 per cent, of the same land matures at 
least one other crop the same year, and much of this may be 
wheat or balrley, both chiefly consumed as human food. 

Had the Mongolian races spread to and developed in North 
America instead of, or as well as, in eastern Asia, there might 
have been a Grand Canal, somewhat as suggested in Fig. 131, 
from the Rio Grande to the mouth of the Ohio River and from the 
Mississippi to Chesapeake Bay. There would thus have been more 
than 2,000 miles of inland waterway, serving commerce, holding 
up and redistributing both the run-off water and the wasting 
fertility of soil erosion, spreading them over 200,000 square miles 
of thoroughly canalized coastal plains, so many of which are now 
impoverished lands, through the intolerable waste of a vaunted 
civilization. And who shall venture to enumerate the increase in 
the tonnage of sugar, bales of cotton, sacks of rice, boxes of 
oranges, baskets of peaches, trainloads of cabbage, tomatoes and 
celery such husbanding would make possible through all time; or 
number the increased millions they could feed and clothe? We 
may prohibit the exportation of our phosphorus, grind our lime- 
stone, and apply them to our fields, but this alone is only tem- 
porizing with the future. The more we produce, the more numer- 



210 K 1 (' I*: C U L T U R E IN 'I^ UK \i I K N T 

nils our millions, llic faster must present practices speed the waste 
to the soa, from whence neitlier money nor prayer can enll tliem 
back. 

If the United States is to endure; if w(^ are to project our liistory 
even throu}i;h four or live thousand years as the Monii;oIian nations 
liave <h)nc, and if that history is to be written in continuous 
pea(H>, fr(!e from periods of wich'spread famine or ])estilence, this 
nation nnist re-orient itself; it nnist scpiare its |)ractiees with a 
conservation of resources which can make enduranei^ possible. 



l"'i(j. l.'ll. A I'liiial \\lii(li would cDrn'Mpond wiUi tho Grand Cnnal of China. 

Intensifying cultural methods hut intensilies the digestion, assimi- 
lation and exhaustion of the surface soil, from which life springs. 
Multiple cropping, closer sta,nds on the ground and stronger 
growth, all mean the trans|)ira,t ion of much more water per acre 
through the crops, and this can only be rendered possible through 
a redistrihution of the run-olf and the adoption of irrigation prac- 
tices in humid climates where water exists in abundance. Sooner 
or Liter we nuist adopt a national policy which will more com- 
pletely (U)nserve our water resources, utilizing them not only for 
power and transportation, l)ut juimarily for the nuiintenance of 



ri(;k culture in the orient 241 

soil fertility and greater crop production through supplemental 
irrigation, and all these great national interests must be con- 
sidered collectively, broadly, and with a view to the fullest pos- 
sible co-ordination. China, Korea and -bipaii long ago struck the 
keynote of pcnnanent agricndture, but th(! time has now come 
when they can and will make great improvements, and it remains 
for us and other natt*)ns to profit by their experience, to adopt and 
a(hipt what is good in their practice and help in a world move- 
ment for tlu; introduction of new and improved methods. 

In selecting rice as their sta[)le crop; in developing and main- 
taining their systems of combined irrigation and drainage, not- 
withstanding they have a large sunnner rainfall; in their systems 
of nudti})le c;ro])ping; in their extensive and ])ersistent use of 
legumes; in their rotations for green manure to maintain the 
humus of their soils and for composting; and in the almost 
religious fidelity with which they have returned to their fields 
every form of waste; which can replace; plant food removed by the 
crops, these nations have demonstrat(!d a grasp of essentials and 
of fundamental principles which may wcdl cause western nations 
to pause and reflect. 

While this country need not and (;ould not now ado])t their 
laborious methods of rice culture, and while, let us hope, those 
who come after us may never be compelled to do so, it is never- 
theless worth while to study them, for the sake of the principles 
involved. 

Great as is the acreage of land in rice in these countries, but 
little, relatively, is of the dry land ty])e, and the fields ujum which 
most of t!ie rice grows have; all been grathid tcj a water level and 
surrounded by low, narrow raised rims, such as may be seen in 
Fig, 132 and in Fig. 133. If the country is not level then the 
slopes are graded into horizontal terraces varying in size accord- 
ing to the steejniess of tlu; areas in which they are cut. We saw 
these often no larger than the? floor of a small room, and Professor 
Ross informed me that he walked past some in the interior of 
China no larger than a dining table and one bearing its crop of 
rice, surrounded by its rim and holding water, yet barely larger 
than a good naj)kin. The average area of the j)addy field in Japan 
is officially reported at 1-14 se, or an area of but 31 by 40 feet. 
Excluding Hokkaido, Formosa and Karafuto, 53 per cent of the 



242 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 




SIZE OF RICE PADDIES 



243 



irrigated rice lands in Japan are in allotments smaller than one- 
eighth of an acre, and 74 per cent of other cultivated lands are 
held in areas less than one-fourth of an acre, and each of these 
may be further subdivided. The next two illustrations, Figs. 134 
and 13.5, give a good idea both of the small size of the rice fields 
and of the terracing which has been done to secure the water level 
basins. The house standing near the centre of Fig. 134 makes a 
good scale for judging both the size of the fields and the slope of 




Fio. 133. 



Rice fields on the plains of the Yangtse-kiang being flooded prepara- 
tory to transplanting rice. 



the valley. The distance between the rows of rice is scarcely one 
foot, so that counting those in the foreground will furnish another 
means of measuring. There are more than twenty little fields 
shown in front of the house and reaching but half-way to it, and 
the house was less than 500 feet from the camera. 

There are more than 1 1 ,000 square miles of fields thus graded 
in the three main islands of Japan, each provided with rims, with 
water supply and drainage channels, all carefully kept in the best 
of repair. The more level areas, too, in each of the three countries, 



2U RICE CULTURE IN TILE ORIENT 




GAINS FROM IRRIGATION WATER 245 

have been similarly thrown into water level basins, comparatively 
few of which cover large areas, because nearly always the holdings 
are small. All the earth excavated from the canals and drainage 
channels has been levelled over the fields unless needed for levees 
or dikes, so that the original labour of construction, added to that 
of maintenance, makes a total far beyond our comprehension and 
nearly all of it is the product of human effort. 




Fig. 135. 



Looking down a steep, luirrdw .Japanese valley at small, flooded and 
transplanted rice paddies. 



The laying out and shaping of so many fields into these level 
basins brings to the three nations an enormous aggregate annual 
asset, a large proportion of which western nations are not yet 
utilizing. The greatest gain comes from the unfailing higher 
yields made possible by providing an abundance of water through 
which more plant food can be utilized, thus providing higher 
average yields. The waters used, coming as they do largely from 
the uncultivated hills and mountain lands, and carrying both 



246 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

dissolved and suspended matters, make positive annual additions 
of dissolved limestone and plant food elements to the fields; and 
in the aggregate they have been very large, through the persistent 
repetitions which have prevailed for centuries. If the yearly 
application of such water to the rice fields is but 16 inches, 
and if this water has the average composition quoted by Merrill 
for rivers of North America, taking into account neither sus- 
pended matter nor the absorption of potassium and phosphorus 
by it, each 10,000 square miles would receive, dissolved in the 
water, substances containing some 1,400 tons of phosphorus; 
23,000 tons of potassium; 27,000 tons of nitrogen; and 48,000 
tons of sulphur. In addition, there are brought to the fields 
some 216,000 tons of dissolved organic matter and a still larger 
weight of dissolved limestone, so necessary in neutralizing the 
acidity of soils, amounting to 1,221,000 tons. Such savings have 
been maintained in China, Korea and Japan on more than five, 
and possibly more than nine, times the 10,000 square miles, through 
centuries. The phosphorus thus turned upon 90,000 square miles 
would aggregate nearly 13,000,000. ton^ in a thousand years, 
which is less than the time the practice has been maintained, and 
the phosphorus is more than would be carried in the entire rock 
phosphate thus far mined in the United States, were it all 75 per 
cent pure. 

The canalization of 50,000 square miles of our Gulf and Atlantic 
coastal plain, and the utilization on the fields of the silts and 
organic matter, together with the water, would mean turning to 
account a vast tonnage of plant food which is now wasting into 
the sea, and a correspondingly great increase of crop yield. There 
ought to be, and it would seem there must some time be, provided 
a way for sending to the sandy plains of Florida, and to the sandy 
lands between there and the Mississippi, large volumes of the rich 
silt and organic matter from this and other rivers, aside from 
that which should be applied systematically to building above 
flood plain the lands of the delta which are subject to overflow or 
are too low to permit adequate drainage. 

It may appear to some that the application of such large 
volumes of water to fields, especially in countries of heavy rainfall, 
must result in great loss of plant food through leaching and surface 
drainage. But imder the remarkable practices of these three 



PROVISIONS AGAINST LEACHING 247 

nations this is certainly not the case, and it is highly important 
that we should understand and appreciate the principles which 
underlie the practices they have almost uniformly adopted on the 
areas devoted to rice irrigation. In the first place, their paddy 
fields are under-drained so that most of the water either leaves the 
soil through the crop, by surface evaporation, or it percolates 
through the subsoil into shallow drains. When water is passed 
directly from one rice paddy to another it is usually permitted 
some time after fertilization, when both soil and crop have had 
time to appropriate or fix the soluble plant food substances. 
Besides this, water is not turned upon the fields until the time for 
transplanting the rice, when the plants are already provided with 
a strong root system and are capable of at once appropriating any 
soluble plant food which may develop about their roots or be 
carried downward over them. 

Although the drains are of the surface type and but 18 inches to( 
3 feet in depth, they are so numerous and ctose that, although thej 
soil is nearly filled with water, there is a steady percolation of the' 
fresh, fully aerated water carrying an abundance of oxygen into 
the soil to meet the needs of the roots. By this means it is made 
possible for watermelons, egg plants, musk melons and taro to be 
grown in rotation on the small paddy fields among the irrigated 
rice after the manner seen in the illustrations. In Fig. 136 each 
double row of egg plants is separated from the next by a narrow 
shallow trench which connects with a head drain and in which 
water is standing within 14 inches of the surface. The same 
was true in the case of the watermelons seen in Fig. 137, where 
the vines are growing on a thick layer of straw mulch which 
separates them from the moist soil, conserves the water by dimin- 
ishing evaporation and, through decay from the summer rains and 
leaching, serves as fertilizer for the crop. In Fig. 138 the view is 
along a pathway separating two head ditches between areas in 
watermelons and taro, carrying the drainage waters from the 
several furrows into the main ditches. Although the soil appeared 
wet the plants were vigorous and healthy, seeming in no way to 
suffer from insufficient drainage. 

These people have, therefore, given effective attention to the 
matter of drainage as well as irrigation and are looking after 
possible losses of plant food, as well as ways of supplying it. It is 



248 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 





•^^ ,1 




;,T^-.-^ . ' . 







Fig. 13G. - Kgg plants growing; in fiic midst nf rice fields with soil continually 
saturated and water standing in surface drain within 14 inches of the surface; 
Japan. 



ik^^^^^^^^A^^BtemsKiii **.. 


'^i. A 




jjp^^^^pr^s*-?^» 




'^^^^H^^^^^^^™''™^ ■ 






^^^■■HP. 


1 


■■■' ■ A-,-, ^^^ 


-« 





Fig. 137. 



W'aterinchins, with the gnminl hciivily mulched with .':trnw, growing 
Oil low beds under conditions similar to those of Fig. 136. 



DRAINAGE 249 

not alone where rice is grown that cultural methods are made to 
conserve soluble plant food and to reduce its loss from the field, 
for very often, where flooding is not practised, small fields and 
beds, made quite level, are surrounded by low raised borders 
which permit not only the whole of any rain to be retained upon 
the field when so desired, but to be completely distributed over it, 
thus causing the whole soil to be uniformly charged with moisture 




Fig. 13S. - Looking along a path between two head ditches separating patches 
of watermelons and taro, Japan. 

and preventing washing from one portion of the field to another. 
Such provisions are shown in Figs. 116 and 121. 

Extensive as is the acreage of irrigated rice in China, Korea and 
Japan, nearly every spear is transplanted; the largest and best 
crop possible, rather than the least labour and trouble, determin- 
ing their methods and practices. We first saw the fitting of the 
nursery rice beds at Canton and again near Kashing in Chekiang 
province on the farm of Mrs. Wu, whose homestead is seen in Fig. 
139. She had come with her husband from Ningpo after the rav- 
ages of the Taiping rebellion had swept from two provinces alone 



250 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

20,000,000 of people, and settled on a small area of then vacated 
land. As they prospered they added to their holding by purchase 
until about 25 acres were acquired, an area about ten times that 
possessed by the usual prosperous family in China. The widow 
was managing her place, one of her sons, although married, being 
still at school, the daughter-in-law living with her mother-in-law 
and helping in the home. Her field help during the summer con- 
sisted of seven labourers and she kept four cows for the ploughing 
and pumping of water for irrigation. The wages of the men were 
at the rate of $2i, Mexican, for five summer months, together with 




Flc. 13'J. - ]{esid('iire compound and farm buildings of Mrs. A\'u, Kashing, China. 

their meals which were four each day. The cash outlay for the 
seven men was thus $14.45 of U.S. currency per month. Ten years 
before, such labour had been $30 per year, as compared with $50 
at the time of our visit, or $12.90 and $21.50 of U.S. currency, 
respectively. 

Her usual yields of rice were two piculs per mow, or 2C| bushels 
per acre, and a wheat crop yielding half this amount, or some 
other crop, was taken from part of the land the same season, one 
fertilization answering for the two crops. She stated that her 
annual expense for fertilizers purchased was usiuilly about $00, 
or $25.80 of U.S. currency. The homestead of Mrs. Wu, Fig. 139, 
consists of a compound in the form of a large quadrangle sur- 
rounding a court closed on the south by a solid wall 8 feet high. 
The structure is of earth brick, the roof of which is thatched with 
rice straw. 

Our first visit here was April 19th. The nursery rice beds had 
been sown four days, at the rate of 20 bushels of seed per acre. The 



NURSERY RICE BEDS 



251 



soil had been very carefully prepared and highly fertilized, the 
last treatment being a dressing of plant ashes so incompletely 
burned as to leave the surface coal black. The seed, scattered 
directly upon the surface, almost completely covered it and had 
been gently beaten into the dressing of ashes, with a wide, flat- 
bottom basket for the purpose. Each evening, if the night was 
likely to be cool, water was pumped over the bed, to be withdrawn 
the next day, if warm and sunny, so that the warmth might be 
absorbed by the black surface, and a fresh supply of air to be 
drawn into the soil. 




Fig. 140. - Pumping station on the farm of Mrs. Wu, showing pump shelter, 
two power wheels connected with putnps, set at the end of a water channel 
leading from a canal. 



Nearly a month later, May 14th, a second visit was made to 
this farm, and one of the nursery beds of rice, as it then appeared, 
is seen in Fig. 142; the plants were about 8 inches high and nearing 
the stage for transplanting. The field beyond the bed had already 
been partly flooded and ploughed, turning under 'Chinese clover' 
to ferment as green manure, preparatory for the rice transplant- 
ing. On the opposite side of the bed and in front of the residence, 
Fig. 139, flooding was in progress in the furrows between the 
ridges formed after the previous crop of rice was harvested and 
upon which the crop of clover for green manure was grown. At one 



252 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

end of the two sorios of mirsory bods, one of which is seen in Fig. 
112, was the puTiipintj; ])l:)nt s('(>n in Fig. 1 10, uikUt a tha,tch('d 
shelter, with its two pumps installed at the end of a water chauncl 
leading from the canal. One of these wooden pump powers, with 
the blindfohh'd cow attached, is reproduced in Fig. 141. 

More than a month is sa-ved for maturing and harvesting winter 
and early sj)ring cro})s, or in iitting the fields for rice, by this plant- 
ing in nursery beds. The irrigation periotl for most of the lantl is 
cut short a like amount, saving both water and time. It is cheaper 




Flu. 111. CIo.M' \ lew <it |i(i\V(r u 
irrif^at iuii piiin] 



•1 witli (•i)w nltaclii'd, ii.scil in (lri\ iiig tho 
>l lli(< two seen in V'ljX- lit'. 



and easier to highly fertilize and |)re|)are a small a.rea for the 
nursery, while at the same time nuich stronger a.nd more uniform 
plants are secured than would be ])ossible by sowing in the held. 
The labour of weeding and caring for the ])lants in the nursi^ry is 
far less than woidd be required in the field. It would be practically 
impossible to lit the entire rice areas as early in the season as the 
mirs(>ry beds are fitted, for the green ma.mire is not yet grown and 
time is re(piired for composting or for deca,ying. if j)loughed under 
directly. The rice plants in the nursery are carried to a stage when 
they are strong feeders, and when set into the newly pre})ared, 
fertilized, clean soil of the field they are ready to feed strongly 



NURSERY RICE BEDS 



253 




254 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

under the most favourable conditions. Both time and strength of 
plant are thus gained and those ])(M)})1o iire following what would 
appear to be the best possible practices under their condition of 
small holdings and dense population. 

With our broad fields, our machinery and few people, their 
system appears to us crude and impossible, but cut our holdings 
to the si/e of theirs and our machinery, even our ploughs, would 
be inij)ossible. So that the more one studies the enviroiuiient of 




Fio. 143. - 1 



■li IhIiI 'i.miI\ (im.cI |..r- \,fi-. .irid IIm- sriic x il In n g. inilvcnzing 
liurrow used for tliu purpusu, Cliekiaiig province. 



these people, their numbers, what they have done and are doing, 
against what odds they have succeeded, the more difficult it is to 
see what co\irse might have been better. 

How fidl with work is the month which precedes the trans- 
])]aniing of rice has been pointed out - the making of the compost 
f<Ttilizer; harvesting the wheat, rape and beans; distributing the 
compost over the fields, and their flooding iuid ])longliing. In Fig. 
143 one of these fields is seen ])loiiglie(l, sjnoollied iind nearly 
ready for the plants. The turned soil had been thoroughly pulver- 
ized, levelled and worked to the consistency of mortar, on the 
larger fields with one or another sort of harrow, as seen in Figs. 
143 and 1 44. This thorough puddling of the soil permits the plants 
to be quickly set and provides conditions which ensure immediate 
perfect contact for the roots. 



TRANSPLANTING It I (! E 



235 



Wlion the fields an' rcndy women repair to the nursericH with 
their low f<)ur-le<i;j^e(l hiimhoo stools, to pull the rice |)liiiits. (Jare,- 
luUy riiisiut^ tlu' soil from llie roots, they tie them into hiuidles of 
ii size easily handh'd in t niiisplaiitin}^', wliieli a,re then (list rilxited 
in the fields. 

The work of transplanting may b(^ done by groups labouring 
together after the manner seen in Fig. IK"), made from four snap- 
bhots taken from i\\r saine j)oint at intervals of fifteen minutes. 




Flo. 1 M. - Form of rovolvinp woodon harrow for fitting (loodoil rico (iuIcIh pre- 
piinitory to trtiiiHi)lHntiiig. 



I.iong cords were stretched in the rice field G feet ay)art, and each of 
the seven men was setting six rows of rice J foot aj)art, six to eight 
j)lants in a hill, and th(^ hills 8 or 9 inches apart in the row. The 
])un<lle was held in one hand and deftly, with the other, the desired 
number of j)lants were selected with the fingers at the roots, 
sei)arated from the rest and, with a single thrust, set in })lace in 
the row. There was no packing of earth abcnit the roots, each hill 
being set with a single motion, which followed one another in 



256 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

quick succession, completing one cross row of six hills after 
another. The men move backward across the field, completing one 
entire section, tossing the unused plants into the unset field; then 
reset the lines to cover another section. We were told that the 
usual day's work of transplanting, for a man under these con- 
ditions, after the field is fitted and the plants are brought to him, 
is two mow or one-third of an acre. The seven men in this group 
would thus set 2| acres per day and, at the wage Mrs. Wu was 
paying, the cash outlay, if the help was hired, would be nearly 
21 cents per acre. This is at a lower rate than we arc able to set 




Fra. 145. - Group of Chinese women pulling rico in a nursery bed, tying the plants 
in bundles preparatory to transplanting. 

cabbage and tobacco plraits with our best macliine methods. In 
Japan, as seen in Figs. 147 and 148, the women participate in the 
work of setting the plants more than in China. 

After the rice has been transplanted its care, unlike that of our 
wheat crop, does not cease. It must be hoed, fertilized and 
watered. To facilitate the watering all fiekls have been levelled, 
canals, ditches and drains provided, and, to aid in fertilizing and 
hoeing, the setting has been in rows and in hills in the row. 

The first working of the rice fields after the transplantipg, as 
we saw it in Japan, consisted in spading beiween the hills with 
a four-tined hoe, apparently more for loosening the soil and aera- 
tion than for killing weeds. After this treatment the field was gone 



TRANSPLANTING RICE 



257 




Fii.. 1 Hi. I ran.-,|)l:uil iiiu i-iir III (I una. Four views taken from the same point at 
iiitcr\als of litteen minutes, showing the progress made during forty-five 
minutes. 

F.F.C. T 



258 KICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

over nj^aiii in tlic mniiiu'r seen in Ki^. 1 19, where the iniin is using 
his bare iiands to smooth and level the stirred soil, taking care to 
eradicate every weed, burying them beneath thc^ mud, and to 
straighten each liill o[ rice as it is |)a,ssed. Sometimes the fingers 
are armed with bamboo claws to lacibtate the weeding. Machin- 
ery in the form of revolving hand cidtiva^tors is now coining into 
use in Japan, and two men using these are seen in Fig. 12. In 
these (udtivators the teeth are mountcnl on an axle so as to revolve 
as the cultivator is |)ushed along the row. 

Fertilization for the rice crop receives the greatest attention 




l''lli. 117. .V f^rulljl of .l;l|iiUH :.i- VMiMuii I 1 .lli..|>l.llil 111(4 i\tr 

costiitiH', 111. I"'iikii(ikii lOxpi'riiiioiit Slatioii. 



Ill I'.iiMV woaUior 



everywhere, and in no direction more than in maintaining the 
8tor(> of organic matter in the soil. The pink clover, to which 
reference has been made (Figs. (SI and .Sf)) is extensively sowed 
after a crop of rice is harvested in the autumn and comes into full 
bloom, ready to cut for compost or to turn under directly the rice 
fields are plouglKnl. Eighteen to twenty tons of this green clover 
are produced per acre, and in Japan this is usually applied to 
about ;i acres, the stubble and roots serving for the lield producing 
the clover. Thus a dressing is given of G to 7 tons of green manure 
j)er acre, carrying not less than 87 ])ounds of ])ota,ssium, 5 |)ounds 
of phosphorus, and 58 jxainds of nitrogen. 

Where the families are large and the holdings small, so that they 



TRANSPLANTING RICE 



259 




20)0 TIICE CULTURE TN THE O lU K N T 

ciuuiot sjuirc room to <j;r()\v Mi(> <j;r('('ii inaiuiro crop, it is gathcn'd 
on tlie niountaiii, weed and liill lands, or cut in the ca,naLs. Oil our 
boat trip west from Soocliow llic last^ ol May, many boats were 
])a,sscd carryin.ij; tons ol the loiiif ti;rccii rihhoii-iikc <^rass, cut and 
•^mIIh red IVoin t he l)()l.tom of tlic canal. To cut this j^rass men were 
worl<in<^ to tlu'ir armpits in the water of tlie canal, usin<^ a cres- 
cent-shaped knife mounted lil\<> an aiiclior from the end of a 10- 
foot l)and»o<) handle. Tliis was sIiov<mI forward alon<z the bottom 







,( r 






l'"liJ. I 111. - SriH.olliin^; I lie sciil mill |)iilliiin xvcimIh iiI'Iit I Ik' liirfl. wmkin^; of il lii'M 
III' I nins|>liui((>(l ri(U<, .liipiiti. 

of the canal and ilien draAvn backward, ( iiltinij; the {^rass, which 
rose to I he surface, where it was ^fathered on to the boats. 

The straw of rice and other j^rain, the stems of any phuit not 
usal)le a.s fuel and ihi\ chalT which is often scatt(>red upon t he water 
after tlie rice is transplanted (V\<r,. 151 ) may all be worked into the 
mud of rice fields. 

Reference has been made to the utilization of waste of various 
kinds in these countries to maintain the productive ])ower of their 
soils, but it is wortli while, in the interests of western nations, as 
helping them to realize the ultimate necessity of such economies, 



F E R T I L I Z 1 N G 



261 




Flo. 150.- r..,,ii lo.iil of t;niKH (Mil. from l)o(,(,()iri of ciimil, to l<o iisiil hh j^vcun 
iiitmurn or jii |)rc|)iii-in(^ conipoHl fi^rfiliziT, Kiaii^;KU. 



to state agaii), in iiKin' rxplicit. I.crin.s, wluii .Iiipitii is doiri}^. Dr. 
Kiiwiij^iiclii, ol' lilt' Niitioiial l)c|!;i.r(ni('ni ol" AjfriciiiiiiTc iiiwl Coiri- 
nierco, taking liisdiila Innn llicir records, informed nic that Japan 
produced, in 1908, and api)lied to licr fields, 23,850,295 tons of 




Fid. 151. - A|)i)lyiiig chuff to u rice Ucld an it fertilizer. 



262 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

human manure and 22,812,787 tons of compost; and that she 
imported 753,074 tons of commercial fertilizers, 7,000 of which 
were phosphates in one form or another. In addition to these she 
must have applied not less than 1,404,000 tons of fuel ashes and 
10,185,500 tons of green manure products, grown on her hill and 
weed lands, and all these were applied to less than 14,000,000 
acres of cultivated field. It should be emphasized that this is done 
because as yet she has found no better way of permanently 
maintaining a fertility capable of feeding her millions. 




Fig. 152. - Well sweep and quadrangular conical water bucket used for irrigation 

in Chihli. 

Besides fertilizing, transplanting and weeding the rice crop, 
there is the enormous task of irrigation to be maintained until 
the rice is nearly matured. Much of the water used is Ufted by 
animal-power and a large share of it by man-power. The portable 
spool windlass, in Figs. 23 and 107, has been described, and Fig. 
152 shows the quadrangular cone-shaped bucket and sweep 
extensively used in Chihli. This man was supplying water suffi- 
cient for the irrigation of half an acre per day, hfting the water 
8 feet. 

The form of pump most used in China and the foot-power for 
working it are seen in Fig. 153. Three men working a similar 
pump are seen in Fig. 133, a closer view of three men working the 



IKEIGATING RICE 



263 



foot-power may be seen in Fig. 36, and still another stands adja- 
cent to a series of flooded fields in Fig. 154. Where this view was 
taken the old farmer informed us that two men, with this pimip, 
lifting water 3 feet, were able to cover two mow of land with 
3 inches of water in two hours. This is at the rate of 2-5 acre-inches 
of water per ten hoiu"s per man, and for 12 to 15 cents, U.S. 
currency, thus making 16 acre-inches, or the season's supply of 
water, cost 77 to 96 cents, where coolie labour is hired and fed. 




Fig. 153. - Three-man Chinese foot-power and wooden chain pump extensively 
used for irrigation in various parts of China. 

Such is the efficiency of human power applied to the Chinese 
pump, measured in American currency. 

This pump is simply an open box trough in which travels a 
wooden chain carrying a series of loosely-fitting boards which 
raise the water from the canal, discharging it into the field. The 
size of the trough and of the buckets are varied to suit the power 
applied and the amount of water to be lifted. Crude as it. appears, 
there is nothing in western manufacture that can compete with 



2(VI IM (" K (MM. T n K K IN 'IMI K O K' 1 K N T 

it. ill lirsl cost, iiuiiiilcnaiuM* or cHicicttcv lor Clniicsc coiidil ions 
1111(1 iKtlliiiij^ is intirc cliiiraclrristic ol all tlicsc people llinii (liiMr 
t'llieieiil, siiii|ile a|)|»liaiiees ol all Ivinds, wliieli lliey liaAc reduced 
to ( ln> lowest teiiiis in every feat uic ol eoiisl riicl ion and cost . The 
ji;rcaicst^ results are acconiplislied Ity the simplest ni»>aiis. IT a, ciuuil 
nuist^ l)C l)ri(l}j;e(l . and il is loo wide to lie co\cred l>N' a, single span, 
i\w (^liincse euf^inccr may erect it at some convenient pliiee and 




FiO. in-1. - It'ioUlH n><'('n(Iy flooildd vvitli tin* Cliiiioso fDot-juiwcr oliaiii |)uitip 

I>ri>|iuiii((H'y II' |il<>ii^;liin^; lor rico. 



turn the canal under it when coni|>leted. This \V(> saw in the easo 
ol a. new railroad l)rid<j;e near Sunj^kiaiiij;. 'I'he l)ri<l«^e was com- 
pleted and I he water had just Itecn I u rued under it and com |)e lied 
to make its own e.\ca\ahon. (Jreat (\\|)ense had Itecn savetl, while 
trallic on the canal had not been ohst ructcd. 

In the l'oot-|iower wheel of .Japan all <i;ea.rin}i is climinnttMl and 
the man walks the paddles themselves, as s(>en in Ki<^. 155. Som<' 
of these wheels are 10 feet in diameter, the diainetcr depeiwlinf^j 
Upon the height the water must he lifted. 



1 l{ I! MJ AT I N(; I{ I {! K 



205 



Trrif^atioii by niiiiiiiil power is cxl^'iisivcly pnicl iscd in (mcIi of 
tli<' llircc count lies, cniployin;^ mostly []u- (y|)<' ol |)ow('r wIkm-I 
hIiowimm l^'i^. III. Kij^. 15(1 HJiowH t/ho most commoii I v|)c ol! hlicl- 
tcr seen ill dlickiiuif,' and Kiuiij^.su provinccH, vvlicrc llicy ure very 
iMiiMcroiis. W«MU)unl('(l ii,s iiuuiy as forty such sliclt/crH in a Kcnji- 
circlc of liiiJf a, mile nulius. They provide coinfort for the uiiiiiials 
• iiiriii'' hotli suiishitie and rain, for under no conditions must, t-hc^ 




I'lii. I.^.i. .lii|miicHo in'ij^ul ion fool-wlii'cl. 

wal-er he permit-led to run low on the rice (ields, and everywhoro 
(himestic animals receive kind, tiion^htful treat-ment-. 

ill tli(^ less h^vel sections, where streams have siiHicieiit fall, 
current, wheels are in common use, carryiiifj; hucdoits near th<'ir 
circumference arraiij^ed so as to till when passing through the 
water, and to em|)t,y, after reaching the higliest h^vel, inlio a 
receptacle provided with a conduit, which leads t,h(^ water t,o the 
held. In S/echwan province sonu^ of these current wheels ar(! so 
large and gracefully construct^cd as to strongly suggest F(Trifl 
wheels. 

When the harvest tinu; has come, notwithstanding the largo 



266 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

acreage of grain, yielding hundreds of millions of bushels, the 
small, widely-scattered holdings and the surface of the fields 
render all our machine methods impossible. Even our grain 
cradle, which preceded the reaper, would not do, and the great 
task is still met with the old-time sickle, as seen in Fig. 157, 
cutting the rice hill by hill, as it is transplanted. 

Previous to the time for cutting, after the seed is well matured, 
the water is drawn off and the land permitted to dry and harden. 
The rainy season is not yet over and much care must be exercised 




Fio. 156. - Power-wheel shelter oc bank of canal, in Kiangsu province. 

in curing the crop. The bundles may be shocked in rows along 
the margins of the paddy fields, as seen in Fig. 157, or they may be 
suspended, heads down, from bamboo poles, as seen in Fig. 158. 
The threshing is accomplished by drawing the heads of the 
rice through the teeth of a metal comb mounted as seen at the 
right in Fig. 159, near the lower corner, behind the basket, where 
a man and woman are occupied in winnowing the -dust and chaff 
from the grain by means of a large double fan. Fanning mills, 
built on the principle of those used by our farmers and closely 
resembling them, have long been used in both China and Japan. 
After the rice is threshed the grain must be hulled before it can 



REAPING, THRESHING 



267 




Fig. 157. - Japanese farniora harvesting rice with the old-time sickle. 




FiQ. 158. - Suspending rice bundles from bamboo frames set up in the fields for 
curing the grain, preparatory to threshing ; Japan. 



2GB EICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

serve as food, and the oldest and simplest method of polishing 
used by the Japanese is seen in Fig. 160, where the friction of 
the grain upon itself does the polishing. A quantity of rice is 
poured into the receptacle when, with heavy blows, the long- 
headed plunger is driven into the mass of rice, thus forcing the 
kernels to slide over one another until, by their abrasion, the 




Fig. 169. - Winnowing rii-o in . Lip. in, (ishil; (he iarui' ilcmlile Ian wcirkcd by a 
pair of bamboo handlw,. A inutal comb for removing the rice from tho straw 
stands at the right. 

desired result is secured. The same method of polishing, on a 
larger scale, is accomplished when the plungers are worked by the 
weight of the bodj'-, a series of men stepping upon' lever handles 
of weighted plungers, raising them and allowing them to fall under 
the force of the weight attached. Recently, however, mills worked 
by petrol engines are iu operation for both hulling and polishing, 
in Japan. 



USES OF RICE STEAW 



269 



The many uses to which rice straw is put in the economies of 
these people make it almost as important as the rice itself. As 
food and bedding for cattle and horses; as thatching material for 
dwellings and other shelters* as fuel; as a mulch; as a source of 
organic matter in the soil, and as a fertilizer, it represents a money 




Fig. 160. - Large wooden mortar n.sed for the polishing of rice in Japan. 

value which is very large. Besides these ultimate uses, the rice 
straw is extensively employed in the manufacture of articles used 
in enormous quantities. It is estimated that not less than 
188,700,000 bags, such as are seen in Figs. 161 and 162, worth 
$3,110,000, are made annually from the rice straw in Japan. They 
are used for handling 346,150,000 bushels of cereals and 28,190,000 



270 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

bushels of beans; and besides these, great numbers of bags are 
employed in transporting fish and other prepared manures. 

In the prefecture of Hyogo, with 596 square miles of farm land, 
as compared with Rhode Island's 712 square miles, Hyogo 
farmers produced in 1906, on 265,040 acres, 10,584,000 bushels of 
rice worth $16,191,400, securing an average yield of almost 40 
bushels per acre and a gross return of $61 for the grain alone. In 
addition to this, these farmers grew on the same land, the same 




Fig. Ifil. - Sacking rice in bags made from the rice straw, Japan, 

season, at least one other crop. Where this was barley the average 
yield exceeded 26 bushels per acre, worth $17. 

In connection with their farm duties these Japanese families 
manufactured, from a portion of their rice straw, at night and 
during the leisure hours of winter, 8,980,000 pieces of matting and 
netting of different kinds having a market value of $262,000; 
4,838,000 bags worth $185,000; 8,742,000 slippers worth $34,000; 
6,254,000 sandals worth $30,000; and miscellaneous' articles worth 
$64,000. This is a gross earning of more than $21,000,000 from 
eleven and a half townships of farm land and the labour of the 



EOTATIONOFCEOPS 271 

farmers' families, an average earning of $80 per acre on nearly 
three-fourths of the farm land of this prefecture. At this rate three 
of the four forties of our 160-acre farms should bring a gross annual 
income of $9,600 and the fourth forty should pay the expenses. 
At the Nara Experiment Station we were informed that the 
money value of a good crop of rice in that prefecture should be 
placed at $90 per acre for the grain and $8 for the unmanufactured 
straw; $36 per acre for the crop of naked barley, and $2 per acre 





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Fig. 162. - Loading, for shipment, rice put up in bags made from the rice straw; 

Japan. 



for the straw. The farmers here practise a rotation of rice and 
barley covering four or five years, followed by a summer crop of 
melons, worth $320 per acre, and some other vegetable instead of 
the rice on the fifth or sixth year, worth 80 yen per tan, or $160 per 
acre. To secure green manure for fertilizing, soy beans are planted 
each year in the space between the rows of barley, the barley 
being planted in November. One week after the barley is har- 
vested the soy beans, which produce a yield of 160 kan per tan, 
or 5,290 poimds per acre, are turned under and the ground fitted 
for rice. At these rates the Nara farmers are producing on four- 



272 RICE CULTURE IN THE ORIENT 

fifths or five-sixths of their rice lands a gross earning of $136 per 
acre annually, and on the other fifth or sixth an earning of $480 
per acre, not counting the annual crop of soy beans used in main- 
taining the nitrogen and organic matter in their soils, and not 
counting their earnings from home manufactures. Can the farmers 
of our South Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, which are in the same 
latitude, some time attain to this standard? We see no reason why 
they should not, but only with the best of irrigation and fertiliza- 
tion, with proper rotation aud multi|)le cropping. 



XIII 

SILK CULTURE 

IN some ways one of the most remarkable industries of the 
Orient is that of silk production, and its manufacture into the 
most exquisite and beautiful fabrics in the world. Remarkable for 
its magnitude; for having had its birthplace apparently in oldest 
China, at least 2,600 years B.C.; for having been founded on the 
domestication of a wild insect of the woods; and for having lived 
through more than 4,000 years, and expanded until to-day a 
$1,000,000 cargo of the ])ro(luct is laid down on our western coast 
at one time and rushed by special express to New York City for 
the Christmas trade. 

Japan produced in 1907 26,072,000 pounds of raw silk from 
17,154,070 bushels of cocoons, feeding the silkworms from mul- 
berry leaves grown on 957,560 acres. At the export selling price 
of this silk in Japan the crop represents a money value of 
$124,000,000, or more than $2 per capita for the entire popula- 
tion of the Empire; and engaged in the care of the silkworms, 
illustrated in Figs. 163, 164, 165 and 166, there were, in 1906, 
1,407,766 families, or some 7,000,000 people. 

RichaTcVs Geography of the Chinese Empirep\a.eGs the total ex- 
port of raw silk to all countries, from China, in 1905, at 30,413,200 
pounds, and this, at the Japanese export price, represents a value 
of $145,000,000. Richard also states that the value of the annual 
Chinese export of silk to France amounts to 10,000,000 pounds 
sterling, and that this is but 12 per cent of the total, from which 
it appears that her total export alone reaches a value near 
$400,000,000. 

The use of silk in wearing apparel is more general among the 
Chinese than among the Japanese, and with China's eightfold 
greater population, the home consumption of silk must be large 
indeed and her annual production must far exceed that of Japan. 
Hosie places the output of raw silk in Szechwan at 5,439,500 
pounds, which is nearly a quarter of the total output of Japan, 
and silk is extensively grown in eight other provinces, which 
together have an area nearly fivefold that of Japan. It would 

273 



274 



SILK CULTURE 



appear, therefore, that a low estimate of China's annual produc- 
tion of raw silk must be some 120,000,000 pounds, and this, with 
the output of Japan and Korea, would make a product for the 
three countries probably exceeding 150, 000, ()()() pounds annually, 
representing a total value of perhaps |700,000,000; quite ecpialling 
in value the wheat crop of the United States, but produced on less 
than one-eighth of the area. 

According to the observations of Count Dandola, the worms 




Fig. Ki.'t - Koinoviiig HilUworm ogg.s from slu^ots of paper vvlioro tlioy were laiil 
preparatory to hateliing, Japan. 



which contribute to this vast earning are so small at hatching that 
some 700,000 of them weigh only one pound; but they grow very 
rapidly, shed their skins four times, weighing 15 ])()iiii(ls at the 
time of tlie lirst moult, 91 pounds at the second, '100 ])ounds at 
the third, 1,628 })ounds at the fourth moulting, and when mature 
have come to weigh nearly 5 tons -9,500 pounds. In making this 
growth during about thirty-six days, according to Paton, the 
700,000 worms have eaten 105 ])Ounds by the time of the first 
mouh; .'515 pounds by the second; 1,050 iKumds by the third; 
3,150 pounds by the fourth; and in the final period, before spinning, 



FEEDING SILKWORMS 



276 



19,215 pounds, thus consuminf^ in all nearly 12 tons of mulberry 
loavf's in producing nearly 5 tons of live; w('ij.^ht, or at the rate 
of 2i y)ounds of ^revn leaf to 1 pound of growth. 

According to Paton, the cocoons from the 700,000 worms would 
weigh between 1 ,400 and 2,100 pounds, and these, according to the 
observations of ITosie in the province of Szechwan, would yield 
about (me-twclfth tlicir weight of raw silk. On this basis the 
1 pound c)f worms hatclicd from the eggs would yield between 




Fkj. 101. - J""cciiiii;,' KilkuoiiiiH. Ono of tlio 10 hamboo tniy.s, on wliioli tlio silk- 
vvorinH iiro fei'diiij^', Iiuh Ix^oii n-niovcd from thr) rackn and JapunoHo girlH are 
sprciiding over it a frowli HU()ply of inniborry Iouvch. 



110 and 175 pounds of raw silk, worth, at the Japanese export 
price for 1907, between $550 and $832, anc^ 161 pounds of 
green mulberry leaves would be required to produce a pound of 
silk. 

A Chinese banker in Chekiang province, with whom we talked, 
stated that the young worms which would hatch from the eggs 
spread on a sheet of paper 12 by 18 inches would consume, in 
coming to maturity, 2,(500 pounds of mulberry leaves and would 
spin 21 pounds of silk. This is at the rate of 123 pounds of leaves 



270 



SILK CULTURE 



to 1 |)(>iin(l of sills. Tlie .7iVf)iui('S(^ croi) for 1907, 2^,072,000 ponnrls, 
])ro(luc('(l oil 1)57,5(10 iu'.rcs, is a mciui yield of 27-2.'5 {)oini(ls of raw 
silk })cr acre of mulberries, and this would require a mean yield 
of 1,405 poiuids of green nudh(Try leaves per aerc, at the rate of 
164 pounds j)er pound of silk. 

Ordinary silk in these eoiiiiiries is produced largely from tlirce 
varieties of mulberries, and from them there may be three pickings 
of leaves for the rearing of a spring, summer and autumn crop of 
silk. We learned at the Nagoya Exj)eriment Station, Japan, that 




Fici. 10.5. - Providing placoR for sillcworiiia to fipin their cocoons. 



there good spring yields of nudberry leaves an^ at the rate of 400 
kan, the second cro]) 150 kau, and the third crop 250 kan per 
tiin, making a total yield of over 13 tons of green leaves per acre. 
This, however, §eems to be nuiterially higher than the average 
for the Empire. 

In Fig. ](')7 is a near view of a mulberry orchard in Chekiang 
province, which had been very lieavily fertilized with canal 
nmd, and which was at the stage for cutting th(> leaves to feed the 
first crop of silkworms. A bundle of cut limbs is in the crotch of 
the front tree in the view. Those who raise mulberry leaves are 
not usually tlie feeders of tlie silkworms, ajid tli(> leaves from this 



A M n L I'. K K \l Y OK (' II A K D 



277 




Kiu. Hid. 8i-l( 



IK) I III' hIiii|>ii 



ontliiLrd w<r<' hi'iiit^ koM iil, otic dollnr, IVIcxiciifi, \hv [hciiI, or IV^-'Jf) 
(U'lil/H \>*'V 100 poiiiids. Tlw KiiiMc price wJiH hciiij.' paiil ii, wccl, |;i,|,cr 
in t.lic viciiiily »»l Njiiildri}^, Ki!uif/;Hii province. 

'I'lic tniilliciry IrccH, im l'li<'y ;ipp<'Jir hcloic comitiM; into Icjif in 




Flu. I(j7. -A iKJ.ir vmw ol ii iihiIIh:! ry i>ii:liitr<l in (;iii;liiiiiiK |>i<>viii(:e. 



278 



SILK CULTURE 



the early spring, may be seen in Fig. 168. The long limbs are the 
shoots of the last year's growth, from which at least one crop of 




FiQ. 168. - Near view of mulberry tree many years old, showing limbs of the last 
year's growth which will be cut close to the old wood when in full leaf. 

leaves had been picked, and in healthy orchards they may have 
a length of 2 to 3 feet. An orchard, from a portion of which the 



PRUNING OF MULBERRY TREES 279 

limbs had just been cut, presented the appearance seen in Fig. 
169. These trees were twelve to fifteen years old and the enlarge- 
ments on the ends of the limbs resulted from the frequent pruning, 
year after year, at nearly the same place. The ground under these 
trees was thickly covered with a growth of pink clover just coming 
into bloom, which would be spaded into the soil, providing 
nitrogen and organic matter, whose decay would liberate potash, 
phosphorus and other mineral plant-food elements for the crop. 

In Fig. 170 three rows of mulberry trees, planted 4 feet apart, 
stand on a narrow embankment raised 4 feet, partly through 
adjusting the surrounding fields for rice, and partly by additions 
of canal mud used as a fertilizer. On either side of the mulberries 
is a crop of windsor beans, and on the left a crop of rape, both of 
which would be harvested in early June, the ground where they 
stand flooded, ploughed and transplanted to rice. This and the 
other mulberry views were taken in the extensively canalized 
portion of China represented in Fig. 45. The farmer owning this 
orchard had just finished cutting two large bundles of limbs for 
the sale of the leaves in the village. He stated that his first crop 
ordinarily yields from 3 to as many as 20 piculs per mow, but that 
the second crop seldom exceeded 2 to 3 piculs. The first and second 
crop of leaves, if yielding together 23 piculs per mow, would 
amount to 9-2 tons per acre, worth, at the price named, $59.34. 
Mulberry leaves must be delivered fresh as soon as gathered and 
must be fed the same day; the limbs, when stripped of their 
leaves, at the place where these are sold, are tied into bundles and 
reserved for use as fuel. 

In the south of China the mulberry is grown from low cuttings 
rooted by layering. We have before spoken of our five hours' ride 
in the Canton delta region, on the steamer Nanninq, through 
extensive fields of low mulberry, then in full leaf, which were first 
mistaken for cotton nearing the blossom stage. This form of 
mulberry is seen in Fig. 37, and the same method of pruning is 
practised in southern Japan. In middle Japan high pruning, as in 
Chekiang and Kiangsu provinces, is followed, but in northern 
Japan the leaves are picked directly, as is the case everywhere 
with the last crop of leaves. Pruning is not practised in the more 
northern latitudes. 

Not all silk produced in these northern countries is from the 



280 



SILK CULTURE 




PRUNING OF MULBERRY TREES 281 




a. 



282 SILK CULTURE 

domesticated Bomhyx mori; large amounts are obtained from the 
spinnings of wild silkworms feeding upon the leaves of a species 
of oak growing on the mountain and hill lands in various parts of 
China, Korea and Japan. In China the collections in largest amount 
are reeled from the cocoons of the tussur worm {Aniliercea pernyi) 
gathered in Shantung, Honan, Kweichow and Szechwan provinces. 
In the hilly parts of Manchuria also this industry is attaining large 
proportions, the cocoons being sent to Chefoo in the Shantimg 
province, to be woven into pongee silk. 

M. Randot has estimated the annual crop of wild silk cocoons 
in Szechwan at 10,180,000 pounds, although in the opinion of 
Alexander Hosie much of this may come from Kweichow. Richard 
places the export of raw wild silk from the whole of China proper, 
in 1904, at 4,400,000 pounds. This would mean not less than 
75,300,000 pounds of wild cocoons and may be less than half the 
home consumption. 

From data collected by Alexander Hosie, it appears that in 
1899 the export of raw tussur silk from Manchuria, through the 
port of Newchwang by steamer alone, was 1,862,448 pounds, 
valued at $1,721,200, and the production is increasing rapidly. 
The export from the same port the previous year, by steamer, 
was 1 ,046,704 pounds. This all comes from the hilly and mountain 
lands south of Mukden, lying between the Liao plain on the west 
and the Yalu river oh the east, covering some 5,000 square miles, 
which we crossed on the Antung-Mididen railway. 

There are two broods of these wild silkworms each season, 
between early May and early October. Cocoons of the autumn 
brood are kept through the winter. When the moths come forth 
they are caused to lay their eggs on pieces of cloth, and when 
the worms are hatched they are fed until the first moult upon 
the succulent new oak leaves gathered from the hills, after which 
the worm? are taken to the low oak growth on the hills where 
they feed themselves and spin their cocoons under the cover of 
leaves drawn about them. 

The moths reserved from the first brood, after becoming 
fertile, are tied by means of threads to the oak bushes, where they 
deposit the eggs which produce the second crop of tussur silk. To 
maintain an abundance of succulent leaves within reach the oaks 
are periodically cut back. 



WILD SILKWORMS 283 

Thus these plain people, patient, frugal, unshrinking from toil, 
the basic units of three of the oldest nations, go to the uncultivated 
hill lands and from the wild oak and the millions of insects which 
they help to feed upon it, not only create a valuable export trade, 
but procure material for clothing, fuel, fertilizer and food, for 
the large chrysalides, cooked in the reeling of the silk, may be 
eaten at once or are seasoned with sauce to be used later. Besides 
this, the last unreelable portion of each cocoon is laid aside to be 
manufactured into silk wadding and soft mattresses for caskets 
upon which the wealthy lay their dead. 



XIV 

TTTE TEA INDUSTRY 

TiiK cultivation of tea in China and Ja{)an is another of 
the ffreat inihistries of these nations, takinj^ rank with that 
of sericulture, if not above it, in the important part it plays in the 
welfare of the peoj)le. There is little reason to doubt that the 
industry has its founchition in the need of something to rendc'r 
])oiled water palatable for drinking jnirposes. The drinking of 
boiled water has been universally adopted in these countries as an 
individually avjiilable and thoroughly eflicient safeguard against 
that class of d<'a.dly disease germs which it has been almost impos- 
sibh' to exclude from the drinking water of any densely peopled 
country. 

80 far as may be judged from the success of the most thorough 
sanitary jueasures tiuis far instituted, and taking into considera- 
tion the inherent dilliculties which must increase enormously 
with increasing populations, it a.])|)ears inevitable that modern 
methods must ultimately fail in sanitary efficiency and that abso- 
lute saf(>ty must be secured in some manner having the (Hpiivalent 
elTe('t of boiling water, the method which was long ago adopted 
by the Mongoiiaii rac<'s, and which destroys active disease gertns 
at the latest moment before using. It nuist not be overlooked that 
the boiling of drinking water in China and Japan has been 
demanded cpiite as imich because of congested rural j)()pulat ions 
as to guard against such dangers in large cities, while as yet. our 
sanitary (engineers have dealt only with th(> urban phases of this 
most vital probh'in and chiefly, too, thus far, only where it has 
been possible to procure the water su])ply in comparatively 
unpopulated hill lands. But such opj)ortunities caimot remain 
availabh' indefinitely, any n\ore than they did in China and Japan, 
and already ty|)hoid epidemics break out in our large cities and 
citizens are advised to boil their driiddng water. 

If tea-drinking in the family is to remain general in most 
])ortions of the world, and especially if it. increases in proportion 
to ])opulation, there is great, industrial and commercial promise 
for ('hina, Korea and Japan in their tea industry; })articularly 
if they develop tea culture still further over the extensive and 

284 



A FITTING INDUSTRY 28r) 

h\,\\] wniiRccl flunks of IIm' liill I.iikIh, improve flifir «iiIIiii;iI hk-IIkmIh, 
llicir iniuiiifiicturc, and (Icvflop llicir ('X[M)rl triulc 'I'lu'y liavc. the, 
hcsi of cliniiiiic^ and Hoil condifionH and pcophi Hnflicicnl-ly caj)ul)lo 
of cnortiioiisly rxpiUKlin^^ (Im- iridiislry. I'olli iniprovrnicnl. iuid 
cxpjiiisioii of riK'MiodH Jiloii;^ all chhciiI iid lines an- nccdcrl, cniiMinf^ 
ilicni to put n|)on fli*^ tnarkcl, piin^ teas of 1 lioroii/^ldy unifortn 
{^'tadcH of }^na.rani('<'(| (jiiality, and with (licsc ilie niainicnaniM^ 
of an intrrnafiorml codc^ of ri^id (^MiIch wlii(;li will H(>curo to all 
concerned a scpiare dejil and a fiiir division of fli<'. |)ro(il/S. 

The produ(^lion of rice, silK' and tea, are l-liret' indust-ries wliicli 
thcHo nations an; pre-(!ininently circnnistanced and (jualilied to 
economically develop and maintain. Other nations may l)e<,ter 
H})ecia.li/,e alonj^ other lines, and the time is coming vvlicn maxiimim 
production at minimnm cost, as the n'sult of elciin rohnst livin}^, 
will determine lines of S(.cia:l prof^ress iiiid ol internatioiud relal ions. 
With the vital awakenint^ to the possibility of ;i,rid nec-cssity for 
world peace, it imist l)e recoj^nized that t,his can l>e nothirif^ less 
than universal, indnst-rial, (commercial, int/cjlectual and reli^doiis, 
in iiddition t.o in;d<in;/; impossible for ever tJu; carnage t-lw.t has 
rava|;e(| th*^ world throiif^li all the centuries. 

With the extension of r;i|»id t nitisporlat ion and more r;i|)id 
(;ommnnicatJon throiif^hout. the worM, we are fast, ent,erin^ \]\(' 
state of social development which will treat, the whole worM as a 
hiirmonions industrial unit. It, rmist, he rec()|^ni/,ed that, in certain 
ref^ions, l)(!caus(; of jMrculiar fitness of soil, climate and people, 
n(M!(lful products can be produced tlu^rc better and ho rnu(ch more 
ciiciiply tluiri elsewhere, as t,o pay tlie cost of transportation. Jf 
(Ihina, Kon-a and Japan, with parts of India, <;an and will prfxlucc. 
the best and chea{)est sill<s, t,<'a,s or ric<% it must be for t,lie ^reat,est 
j^ood to seek a mutually lielj>ful (!Xchanj.^(S when^as thci (Tiiction 
of inif)assaf)l(! tarilT barricTH is a declaration of war and cannot 
make for wttrld pciice and worM proj^ress. 

The dat,e of the introduction of lea eult,ure irit,o China seems to 
be unknown. It was before t,lie bej^imiiti}^ of the ('hristian era, an«l 
tradition would place it mon; than 2,700 years earli(!r. Tln^ .lapan- 
eH<! (h'finitely (lat(! its introduction into their islands as in tlie year 
A.I). HOf), and state its coming to tliejn from ('hiria,. However and 
whenever tea-growing originat,ed in these coujitricH, it long ago 
attained, and now maintains, large proportions. In 1907 Japan 



286 



THE TEA INDUSTRY 



had 124,482 acres of land occupied by tea gardens and tea planta- 
tions. These produced 60,877,975 pounds of cured tea, giving a 
mean yield of 489 pounds per acre. Of the more than 60,000,000 
])ounds of tea produced annually on nearly 200 square miles in 
Japan, less than 22,000,000 pounds are consumed at home, the 
balance being exported at a cash value, in 1907, of $6,309,122, or 
a mean of 16 cents per pound. 

In China the volume of tea produced annually is much larger 
than in Japan. Hosie places the aiuiual export from Szechwan 
into Tibet alone at 40,000,000 pounds, and this is produced largely 




Flo. 17). — Near view of tea garden with ground heavily mulched with straw, 
adjoining a Japanese farm village. 



in the mountainous portion of the province west of the Min river. 
Richard ])laces her direct export to foreign countries, in 1905, at 
176,027,255 pounds; and in 1906 at 180,271,000 pounds, so that 
the annual export must exceed 200,000,000 pounds, and her total 
product of cured tea nust be more than 400,000,000 pounds. 

The general aj)pearance of tea bushes as they are grown in 
Japan is indicated in Fig. 171. The form of the bushes, the shape 
and size of the leaves and the dense green, shiny foliage quite 
suggests our box, so much used in borders and hedges. When the 
bushes are young, not covering the ground, other crops are grown 



TEA BUSHES 



287 



between the rows, but as the bushes attain their full size, standing 
after trimming, waist to breast high, the ground between is usually 
thickly covered with straw, leaves or grass, and w(H;ds from the 
hill lands, which serve as a mulch, as a fertilizer, as a means of 
preventing washing on the hill-sides, and to force the rain to enter 
the soil uniformly where it falls. 

Quite a large percentage of the tea bushes are grown on small, 
scattered, inrgular areas about dwellings, or on land not readily 



mm^ 








;ftr 


1 




uui.vtb,*^^. ^JM 




„ 


;, ; _ ' •> ^•'' 


J 


•;\. ' ■ 


1 :^ 


■,>•>> . 














■«'.••■ 



Flo. 17:!. 



:ii]g nc.ronH n ten ])luntnl ion Idciitfd on l,li<i Hanks of woodod hill 
lanfls rising in tlic Imck-gn^uiul, Jujian. 



tilled, but there are also many tea ])lantations of considerable size, 
presenting the a})pearance seen in Fig. 172. After each picking of 
the leaves the bushes are trimmed back with j)runing-shears, giving 
the rows the appearance of carefully trimmed hedges. 

The tea-leaves are hand-picked, generally by women and girls, 
after the manner seen in Fig. 173, where they are gathering the 
tender newly-formed leaves into baskets to be weighed fresh, as 
seen in Fig. 174. 



288 



THE TEA INDUSTRY 



Three crops of leaves are usually gathered each season, the 
first yielding in Japan 100 kan per tan, the second 50 kan, and the 
third 80 kan per tan. This is at the rate of 3,307 pounds, 1,653 
pounds, and 2,645 pounds per acre, making a total of 7,605 
pounds for the season, from which the grower realizes from a little 
more than 2-2 to a little more than 3 cents per pound of the green 
leaves, or a gross earning of $167 to $209.50 per acre. 




Fig. 173. - Group of Japanese women picking leaves of the tea plant. 



We were informed that the usual cost for fertilizers for the 
tea orchards was 15 to 20 yen per tan, or $30 to $ iO per acre per 
annum, the fertilizer being applied in the autumn, in the early 
spring, and again after the first picking of the leaves. While the 
tea plants are yet small one winter crop and one summer crop 
of vegetables, beans or barley are grown between the rows, these 
giving a return of some $40 per acre. Where the plantations are 



TEACURING 289 

given good care and ample fertilization the life of a plantation 
may be prolonged continuously, it is said, through one hundred 
or more years. 
During our walk from Joji to Kowata, along a country road in 




leaves in Japan. 



one of the tea districts, we passed a tea-curing house. This was a 
long rectangular one-story building with twenty furnaces arranged, 
each under an open window, around the sides. In front of each 
heated furnace with its tray of leaves, a Japanese man, wear- 
ing only a breech cloth, and in a state of profuse perspira- 

F.F.C. K 



♦ 

290 THE TEA INDUSTRY 

tion, was busy rolling the tea loaves between the palms of his 
hands. 

At another place we witnessed the making of the low-grade 
dust tea, which is prepared from the leaves of bushes which must 
be removed or from those of the prunings. In this case the dried 
bushes with their leaves were being beaten with flails on a thresh- 
ing floor. The dust tea thus produced is consumed by the poorer 
pe(.)ple. 



XV 

A 15 U T TIENTSIN 

ON the 0th of June we lelt central China for Tientsin and 
further nortli, sailing by coastwise steamer from Shan<>;hai, 
again ploughing through the turbid waters whieli give literal 
exactness to the name Yellow Sea. Our steamer touched at Tsing- 
tao, taking on board a body of German troops, and again at Chefoo, 
and it was only between these two points that the sea was not 
strongly turbid. Nor was this all. From early morning of tlu' lOth 
until we anchored at Tientsin, ^l.'M) p.m., our course up t he winding 
Pei-ho was against a strong dust-laden wind, which left those who 
had kept to the deck as grey as though they had ridden by 
automo})ile through the (\)lorado desert. So the soils of high 
interior Asia are still spreading eastward by Hood and wind into 
the valleys and far over the coastal plains. Over large areas be- 
tween Tientsin and Peking, and at other points northward toward 
Mukden, trees and shrubs have been systematically planted in rect- 
angular hedg(>n)\v lines, to check th(> force of the winds and reduce 
the drifting of soils, planted fields occupying the spaces between. 
It was on this trip that we met Dr. Evans of Shunking, Szech- 
wan province. His wife is a ]ihysician practising among the 
Chinese women, and in discussing the probable rate of increase 
of po])uliiii()n among the Chinese, it was stated that she had learned 
through her practice that very many mothers had borne s(!ven to 
eleven children, and yet but one, two, or at most three, were living. 
It was said there are many customs and practices which deter- 
mine this high mortality among children, one of which is that of 
feeding them meat before they have teeth, the mother masticating 
for the chiklren, with the result that often fatal convulsions fol- 
low. A Scotch physician of long experience in Shantung, who took 
the steamer at Tsingtao, replied to my question as to the usual 
size of families in his circuit, 'I do not know. It de])ends on the 
crops. In good years the number is large; in times of famine the 
girls especially are disposed of, often permitted to die when very 
young for lack of care. Many are sold at such times to go into other 
provinces.' Such statements, however, shoukl doubtless be taken 
with much allowance. If all the details were known regarding the 

291 



292 ABOUT TIENTSIN 

cases which have served as foundations for such reports, the 
matter might appear in quite a different light from that suggested 
by such cold recitals. 

Although laud-taxes are high in China, Dr. Evans informed me 
that it is not infrequent for the same tax to be levied twice and 
even three times in one year. Inquiries regarding the land-taxes 
among farmers in different parts of China showed rates running 
from H cents to SU, Mexican, per mow; or from about 8 cents to 
$8.87, gold, per acre. At these rates a 40-acre farm would pay 
from $3.20 to $154.80, and a quarter section four times these 
amounts. Data collected by Consul-General E. T. Williams of 
Tientsin indicate that in Shantung the land-tax is about $1 per 
acre, and in Chihli 20 cents. In Kiangsi province the rate is 200 
to 300 cash per mow, and in Kiangsu, from 500 to GOO cash per 
mow, or, according to the rate of exchange given on page 76, from 
60 to 80 cents, or 90 cents to $1.20 per acre in Kiangsi; and $1.50 
to $2.00 or $1.80 to $2.40 in Kiangsu province. The lowest of 
these rates would make the land-tax on 160 acres $96, and the 
highest would place it at $384, gold. 

In Japan the taxes are paid quarterly and the combined amount 
of the national, prefectural and village assessments usually aggre- 
gates about 10 per cent of the government valuation ])hice(l on the 
land. The mean valuation placed on the irrigated fields, excluding 
Formosa and Karafuto, was in 1907, 35-35 yen per tan; that of the 
upland fields, 9-40 yen, and the genya and pasture lands were 
given a valuation of -22 yen per tan. These are valuations of 
$70.70, $18.80 and $.44, gold, per acre, respectively, and the 
taxes on 40 acres of paddy field would be $282.80; $75.20 on 40 
acres of upland field, and $1.76, gold, on the same area of the 
genya and weed lands. 

In the villag(!S, where work of one kind or another is done for 
pay, Dr. Evans stated that a woman's wage luiglit not exceed $8, 
Mexican, or $3.44, gold, per year, and when we asked how it could 
be worth a woman's while to work a whole year for so ^mall a sum, 
his reply was, 'If she did not do this she would cam nothing, and 
this would keep her in clothes and a little more.' A cotton -spinner 
in his church would procure a pound of cotton and on returning 
the yarn would receive \\ pounds of cotton in exchange, the 
quarter pound being lier compensation. 



SALT WORKS 



293 



Dr. Evans also described a method 
of rooting sli]).s from trees, })ractisc(l in 
various parts of China. The under side 
of a branch is cut, bent upward and 
split for a short distance; about this 
is packed a ball (;f moistened earth 
wra])p(!d in straw to retain the soil and 
to provide for future watering; the 
whole may then be bound with stri})s 
of bamboo for greater stability. In 
this way slips for new mulberry 
orchards are procured. 

At eight o'clock in the morning we 
entered the mouth of the Pei-ho and 
wound westward through a vast, 
nearly sea-level, desert ])lain. In both 
directions, far toward the horizon, huge 
white stacks of salt dotted the surface 
of the Taku Government salt fields, 
and revolving in th(^ wind were great 
numbers of horizontal sail windmills, 
pumping sea-water into an enormous 
acreage of evaporation basins. In Fig. 
175 may be seen five of the large salt 
stacks and six of the windmills, to- 
gether with many smaller ])iles of salt. 
Fig. 17G is a closer view of the evaj)- 
oration basins with piles of salt 
scraped from the surface after the 
mother li(|Uor has been drained away. 
The windmills, which were working 
one, sometimes two, of the large 
wooden chain pumps, were some 30 
feet in diameter and lifted the brine 
from tide-water basins into those of a 
second and third higher level where 
the second and final concentration 
occurred. These windmills, crude as 
they appear in Fig. 177, are neverthe- 



294 



ABOUT TIENTSIN 



less efficient, cheaply constructed and easily controlled. The eight 
sails, each 6 by 10 feet, were so hung as to take the wind through 
the entire revolution, tilting automatically to receive the wind 
on the opposite face the moment the edge passed the critical 
point. Some -480 feet of sail surface were thus spread to the 
wind, working on a radius of 15 feet. The horizontal drive wheel 
had a diameter of 10 feet, and carried eighty-eight wooden cogs 
which engaged a pinion with fifteen leaves. There were nine 




Fig. 176. - Near view of evaporating basins with piles of salt ready to be removed 

from the fields. 



arms on the reel at the other end of the shaft which drove the 
chain. The boards or buckets of the chain pump were 6 by 12 
inches, placed 9 inches apart, and with a fair breeze the pump 
ran full. 

Enormous quantities of salt are thus cheaply manufactured by 
wind, tide and sim power directed by the cheapest human labour. 
Before reaching Tientsin we passed the Government storage yards 
and counted 200 stacks of salt piled in the open, and more than 
a third of the yard had been passed before beginning the coimt. 



CHINESE WINDMILL 



295 



The average content of each stack must have exceeded 3,000 
cubic feet of salt, and more than 40,000,000 pounds must have 
been stored in the yards. Armed guards in military uniform 
patrolled the alleyways day and night. Long strips of matting 
laid over the stacks were the only shelter against rain. 

Throughout the length of China's sea-coast, from as far north 




FxG. 177. - Sail windmill used in pumping brine at the Taku Government salt 

works, C'hihli. 



as beyond Shanhaikwan, south to Canton, salt is manufactured 
from sea-water in suitable places. In Szechwan province, we learn 
from the report of Consul-General Hosie that not less than 300,000 
tons of salt are annually manufactured there, largely from brine 
raised by animal power from wells 700 to more than 2,000 feet 
deep. 

Hosie describes the operations at a well more than 2,000 feet 



296 ABOUT TIENTSIN 

deep, at Tzeliutsing. In the basement of a power-house which 
sheltered forty water buffaloes, a huge bamboo drum 12 feet 
high, 60 feet in circumference, was so set as to revolve on a vertical 
axis propelled by four cattle drawing from its circumference. A 
hemp rope was womid about this drum, 6 feet from the groimd, 
passing out and under a pulley at the well, then up and around a 
wheel mounted 60 feet above and descending to a bucket, made 
from bamboo stems, which dropped with great speed to the bottom 
of the well as the rope imwound. AVhen the bucket reached the 
bottom four attendants, each with a buffalo in readiness, hitched 
to the drum and drove at a running pace during fifteen minutes, 
or until the bucket was raised from the well. The buffalo were 
then unhitched and, while the bucket was being emptied and again 
dropped to the bottom of the well, a fresh relay were brought 
to the drum. In this way the work continued night and day. 

The brine, after being raised from the well, was emptied into 
distributing reservoirs, flowing thence through bamboo pipes to 
the evaporating sheds, where round -bottomed, shallow iron kettles 
4 feet across were set in brick arches in vvhich jets of natural gas 
were burning. 

Within an area some 60 miles square there are more than a 
thousand brine and twenty fire wells from which fuel gas is taken. 
The mouths of the fire wells are closed with masonry, out from 
which bamboo conduits coated with lime lead to the various 
furnaces, terminating with iron burners beneath the kettles. 
Remarkable is the fact that in the city of Tzeliutsing both these 
brine and fire wells have been operated in the manufacture of 
salt since before Christ was born. 

The forty water buffalo are worth $30 to $40 per head and 
their food 15 to 20 cents per day. The cost of manufacturing the 
salt is placed at 13 to 14 cash per catty, to which the Government 
adds a tax of 9 cash more, making the cost at the factory from 
82 cents to $1.15, gold, per 100 pounds. Salt manufacture is a 
Government monopoly and the product must be sold either to 
Government officials or to merchants who have bought the exclu- 
sive right to supply certain districts. The importation of salt is 
prohibited by treaties. For the salt tax collection China is divided 
into eleven circuits, each having its own source of supply, and 
transfer of salt from one circuit to another is forbidden. 



ALONG THE PEI-HO 297 

The usual cost of salt is said to vary between one and a half 
and four cash per catty. The retail price of salt ranges from 
three-fourths to three cents per pound, fully twelve to fifteen times 
the cost of manufacture. The annual production of salt in the 
Empire is some 1,860,000 tons, and in 1901 salt paid a tax close 
to 10,000,000 dollars. 

Beyond the salt fields, toward Tientsin, the banks of the river 
were dotted at short intervals with groups of low, almost window- 
less houses (Fig. 178) built of earth brick plastered with clay on 




Fig. 178. - Chi jie.se village on the bank of the Pei-ho, Province of t'hihli. 

sides and roof, made more resistant to rain by an admixture of 
chaff and cut straw. There was a remarkable freshness of look 
about them which we learned was the result of recent preparations 
made for the rainy season about to open. Beyond the first of these 
villages came a stretch of plain dotted thickly with innumerable 
grave mounds, to which reference has been made. For nearly an 
hour we had travelled up the river before there was any material 
vegetation, the soil being too saline apparently to permit growth, 
but beyond this, crops in the fields and gardens, with some fruit 
and other trees, formed a fringe of varying width along the banks. 
Small fields of transplanted rice on both banks were frequent 
and often the land was laid out in beds of two levels, carefully 



298 ABOUT TIENTSIN 

graded, the rice occupyiiig the lower areas, and wooden chain 
pumps were being worked by hand, foot and animal power, irri- 
gating both rice and garden crops. 

In the villages were many stacks of earth compost, of the Shan- 
tung type; manure middens were common and donkeys drawing 
heavy stone rollers, followed by men with large wooden mallets, 
were going round and roimd, pulverizing and mixing the dry earth 
compost and the large earthen brick from dismantled kangs, 
preparing fertilizer for the new series of crops about to be planted 
Large boatloads of these prepared fertilizers were moving on the 
river and up the canals to the fields. 

Toward the coast from Tientsin, especially in the country 
traversed by the railroad, there was little produced except a short 
grass, this being grazed at the time of our visit and, in places, 
cut for a very meagre crop of hay. The productive cultivated 
lands lie chiefly along the rivers and canals or other watercourses, 
where there is better drainage as well as water for irrigation. The 
extensive, close canalization that characterizes parts of Kiangsu 
and Chekiang provinces is lacking here, and for this reason, in 
part, the soil is not so productive. The fuller canalization, the 
securing of adequate drainage and the gaining of complete control 
of the flood waters which flow through this vast plain during the 
rainy season, constitute one of China's most important industrial 
problems, which, when properly solved, must vastly increase her 
resources. During our drive over the old Peking-Taku road saline 
deposits were frequently observed which had been brought to the 
surface during the dry season, and the city engineer of Tientsin 
stated that in their efforts at parking portions of the foreign 
concessions they had foimd the trees dying after a few years when 
their roots began to penetrate the more saline subsoil, but that 
since they had opened canals, improving the drainage, trees were 
no longer dying. There is little doubt that proper drainage by 
means of canals, and the irrigation which would go with it, would 
make all of these lands, now more or less saline, highly productive, 
as are now those contiguous to the existing watercourses. 

It had rained two days before our drive over the Taku road, 
and when we applied for a conveyance the proprietor doubted 
whether the roads were passable, as he had been compelled to 
send out an extra team to assist in the return of one which had 



SHALLOW CULTIVATION 



299 



been stalled during the previous night. It was finally arranged to 
send an extra horse with us. The rainy season had just begun and 
the deep trenching of the roads concentrates the water in them 
and greatly intensifies the trouble. In one of the little hamlets 
through which we passed the roadway was trenched to a depth of 
3 to 4 feet in the middle of the narrow street, leaving only 5 feet 
for passing in front of the dwellings on either side, and in this 






ij.ry^iBPffMMiA'^ 




Fig. 179. - CI 



>i ,-ii.ill.iw mil i\ ,11 i"ii, iuimIiiiiii- ail ■■ai'th mulch to 
conserve soil moisture. 



trench our carriage moved through mud and water nearly to the 
hubs. 

Between Tientsin and Peking, in the early morning after a rain 
of the night before, we saw many farmers working their fields 
with the broad hoes, developing an earth mulch at the first 
possible moment to conserve their much-needed moisture. Men 
were at work, as seen in Figs. 179 and 180, using long-handled 
hoes, with blades 9 by 13 inches, hung so as to draw just under 
the surface. They were very effective and permitted the men to 
cover the ground rapidly. 

Walking farther, we came upon six women in a field of wheat, 
gleaning the single heads which had prematurely ripened and 



300 



ABOUT TIENTSIN 



broken over upon the ground between the rows soon to be har- 
vested. Whether they were doing this as a privilege or as a task 
we do not know; they were strong, cheerful, reasonably dressed, 
hardly past middle life, and it was nearly noon, yet not one of them 
had collected more straws than she could readily grasp in one 
hand. The season in Chihli, as in Shantung, had been one of 
unusual drought, making the crop short, and perhaps unusual 
frugality was being practised; but it is in saving that these people 




Fig. 180. - Hoe used for shallow cultivation in developing an earth mulch. The 
blade is 13 inches long and 9 inches wide. 



excel perhaps more even than in producing. The heads of wheat, 
if left upon the ground, would be wasted, and if the women were 
privileged gleaners in the fields their returns were certainly much 
greater than were those of the very old women we have seen in 
France gathering heads of wheat from the already harvested 
fields. 

In the fields between Tientsin and Peking all wheat was being 
pulled, the earth shaken from the roots, tied in small bundles 
and taken to the dwellings, sometimes on the heavy cart drawn 



WHEAT HARVEST 



301 



by a team consisting of a small donkey and cow hitched tandem, 
as seen in Fig. 181. Millet had been planted between the rows 
of wheat in this field and was already up. When the wheat was 
removed the ground would be fertilized and planted with soy 
beans. Because of the dry season this farmer estimated his yield 
would be but 8 to 9 bushels per acre. He was expecting to harvest 
13 to 14 bushels of millet and from 10 to 12 bushels of soy beans 
per acre from the same field. This would give him an earning, 
based on the local prices, of $10.36, gold, for the wheat, |6.00 for 




Fig. 181. — Gathering wheat, harvested by being pulled and tied in bundles. 
Team consists of a small donkey and a medium-sized cow, which constitute 
the most common farm team. Tientsin. 



the beans, and $5.48 per acre for the millet. The land was owned 
by the family of the Emperor and was rented at $1.55, gold, per 
acre. The soil was a rather light sandy loam, not inherently fertile, 
and fertilizers to the value of $3.61, gold, per acre, had been 
applied, leaving the earning $16.71 per acre. 

Another farmer with whom we talked, pulling his crop of wheat, 
would follow this with millet and soy beans in alternate rows. 
His yield of wheat was expected to be 11 to 12 bushels per acre, 
his beans 21 bushels and his millet 25 bushels, which, at the local 
prices for grain and straw, would bring a gross earning of $35, 
gold, per acre. 



302 ABOUT TIENTSIN 

Before reaching the end of our walk through the fields toward 
the next station we came across another of the many instances 
of the labour these people are willing to perform for only a small 
possible increase in crop. The field was adjacent to one of the 
windbreak hedges, the trees had spread their roots far afield and 
were threatening the crop through the consumption of moisture 
and plant food. To check this depletion the farmer had dug a 
trench 20 inches deep the length of his field, and some 20 feet from 
the line of trees, thereby cutting all of the surface roots to stop 
their draught on the soil. The trench was left open and an inter- 
esting feature observed was that nearly every cut root on the field 
side of the trench had thrown up one or more shoots bearing 
leaves, while the ends still connected with the trees showed no 
signs of leaf growth. 

In Chihli, as elsewhere, the Chinese are skilled gardeners, using 
water for irrigation whenever it is advantageous. One gardener 
was growing a crop of early cabbage, followed by one of melons, 
and these with radish the same season. He was paying a rent of 
$6.45, gold, per acre; was applying fertilizer at a cost of nearly |8 
per acre for each of the three crops, making his cash outlay 
$29.67 per acre. His crop of cabbage sold for $103, gold; his 
melons for $77, and his radish for something more than $51, 
making a total of $232.20 per acre, leaving him a net value of 
$202.53. 

A second gardener, growing potatoes, obtained a yield, when 
sold new, of 8,000 povmds per acre; and of 16,000 pounds when the 
crop was permitted to mature. The new potatoes were sold so 
as to bring $51.60 and the mature potatoes $185.76 per acre, 
making the earning for the two crops the same season a total of 
$237.36, gold. By planting the first crop very early these gardeners 
secure two crops in the same season, as far north as Columbus, 
Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois, the first crop being harvested when 
the tubers are about the size of walnuts. The rental and fertihzers 
in this case amounted to $30.96 per acre. 

Still another gardener, growing winter wheat followed by onions, 
and these by cabbage, both transplanted, realized from the three 
crops a gross earning of $176 73, gold, per acre, and incurred an 
expense of $31.73 per acre for fertilizer and rent, leaving him a 
net earning of $145 per acre. 



PRESERVING FRUITS 303 

These old people have acquired the skill and practice of storing 
and preserving such perishable fruits as pears and grapes so as 
to enable them to keep them on the markets almost continuously. 
Pears were very common in the latter part of June, and Consul- 
General Williams informed me that grapes are regularly carried 
into July. In talking with my interpreter as to the methods em- 
ployed, I could only learn that the growers depend simply upon 
dry earth cellars which can be maintained at a very uniform tem- 
perature, the separate fruits being wrapped in paper. No foreigner 
with whom we talked knew their methods. 

Vegetables are carried through the winter in such earth cellars 
as are seen in Fig. 73, page 144, these being covered after they are 
filled. 

As to the price of labour in this part of China, we learned through 
Consul-General Williams that a master mechanic may receive 50 
cents, Mexican, per day, and a journeyman 18 cents, or at a rate 
of 21 5 cents and 7.75 cents, gold. Farm labourers receive from 
$20 to $30, Mexican, or $8 60 to $12 90, gold, per year, with food, 
fuel and presents, which make a total of $17 20 to $21 50. This is 
less for the year than we pay for a month of probably less efficient 
labour. There is relatively little child labour in China, and this 
perhaps should be expected when adult labour is so abundant and 
so cheap. 



XVI 

MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

THE 39tli parallel of latitude lies just south of Tientsin; fol- 
lowed westward, it crosses the toe of Italy's boot, leads past 
Lisbon in Portugal, near Washington and St. Louis and to the 
north of Sacramento on the Pacific. We were leaving a country 
with a mean July temperature of 80° F., and of 21° in January, 
but where two feet of ice may form; a country where the eighteen- 
year mean maximum temperature is 103-5° and the mean mini- 
mum 4-5°; where twice in this period the thermometer recorded 
113° above zero, and twice 7° below, and yet near the coast and in 
the latitude of Washington; a country where the mean annual 
rainfall is 19-72 inches, of which all but 3-37 inches falls in June, 
July, August and September. We had taken the 5.40 a.m. 
Imperial North-China train, June 17th, to go as far northward as 
Chicago, - to Mukden in Manchuria, a distance by rail of some 400 
miles, but all of the way still across the northward extension of 
the great Chinese coastal plain. Southward, out from the coldest 
quarter of the globe, where the mean January temperature is 
more than 40° below zero, sweep northerly winds which bring to 
Mukden a mean January temperature only 3° above zero, and 
yet there the July temperature averages as high as 77° and there 
is a mean annual rainfall of but 18-5 inches, coming mostly in the 
summer, as at Tientsin. 

Although the rainfall of the northern extension of China's 
coastal plain is small, its efficiency is relatively high because of its 
most favourable distribution and the high summer temperatures. 
In the period of early growth, April, May and June, there are 4-18 
inches; but in the period of maximum growth, July and August, 
the rainfall is 11-4 inches; and in the ripening period, September 
and October, it is 3 08 inches, while during the rest of the year 
only 1-06 inch falls. Thus most of the rain comes at the time when 
the crops require the greatest daily consumption, and it is least in 
mid-winter during the period of little growth. 

As our train left Tientsin we travelled for a long distance 
through a country agriculturally poor and little tilled, with surface 
flat, the soil apparently saline, and the land greatly in need of 

304 



CAREFUL FARMING 305 

drainage. Wherever there were canals the crops were best, appar- 
ently occupying more or less continuous areas along either bank. 
The day was hot and sultry, but labourers were busy with their 
large hoes, often with all garments laid aside except a short 
shirt and a pair of roomy trousers. 

In the salt district about the village of Tangku there were huge 
stacks of salt and smaller piles not yet brought together, with 
numerous windmills, constituting most striking features in the 
landscape, but there was almost no agricultural or other vegeta- 
tion. Beyond Pehtang there are other salt works and a canal leads 
westward to Tientsin, on which the salt is probably taken thither, 
and stiU other salt stacks and windmills continued visible until 
near Hanliu, where another canal leads toward Peking. Here the 
coast recedes eastward from the railway, and beyond the city 
limits many grave mounds dot the surrounding plains where herds 
of sheep were grazing. 

As we hurried toward the delta region of the Lwan-ho, and 
before reaching Tangshan, a more productive country was tra- 
versed. Thrifty trees made the landscape green, and fields of 
millet, kaoliang and wheat stretched for miles together along the 
track and back over the flat plain beyond the limit of vision. Then 
came fields planted with two rows of maize alternating with one 
row of soy beans, not more than 28 inches apart, one stalk of corn 
in a place every 16 to 18 inches, all carefully hoed, weedless and 
blanketed with an excellent earth mulch; notwithstanding which 
the leaves were curHng in the intense heat of the sun. Tangshan 
is a large city, apparently of recent growth, on the railroad in a 
country where isolated conical hills rise 100 or 200 feet out of 
the flat plains. Cartloads of finely pulverized earth compost were 
here moving to the fields in large quantities, and laid in single 
piles of 500 to 800 pounds, 40 to 60 feet apart. At Kaiping the 
country is a little rolling and we passed through the first railway 
cuts, 6 to 8 feet deep, while the water in the streams was running 
10 to 12 feet below the surface of the fields. On the light and 
beyond Kuyeh there are low hills. Here we passed enormous 
quantities of dry, finely-powdered earth compost, distributed on 
narrow unplanted areas over the fields. What crop, if indeed any, 
had occupied these areas this season, we could not judge. The 
fertilization here is even more extensive and more general than 



306 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

we found it in the Shantung province, and in places water was 
being carried in pails to the fields for use either in planting or in 
transplanting, to ensure the readiness of the new crops to utilize 
the first rainfall when it comes. 

Then the bed of a nearly dry stream some 300 feet wide was 
crossed and beyond it a sandy plain was planted in long narrow 
fields between windbreak hedges. The crops were small but 
evidently improved by the influence of the shelter. The sand in 
places had drifted into the hedges to a height of 3 feet. At a 
number of other places along the way before Mukden was reached 
such protected areas were passed and oftenest on the north side 
of wide, now nearly dry, stream channels. 

As we passed on toward Shanhaikwan we were carried over 
broad plains even more nearly level and unobstructed than those 
to be found in the corn belt of the Middle West in the United 
States. They too were planted with corn, kaoliang, wheat and 
beans, while low houses were hidden in distant scattered clusters 
of trees dotting the wide plain on either side, with not a fence, 
and nothing to suggest a road anywhere in sight. We seemed to 
be moving through one vast field dotted with hundreds of busy 
men, while here and there a great cart appeared hopelessly lost 
in the field, so difficult was it to trace any sign of road to guide 
their course. 

Some early crops appeared to have been harvested from areas 
alternating with those under growth, and these areas were dotted 
with piles of the soil and manure compost, aggregating hundreds 
of tons, distributed over the fields, no doubt to be worked into the 
soil in the course of the next three or four days. 

It w^as at Lwanchow that w^e met the outgoing tide of soy 
beans destined for Japan and Europe, pouring in from the sur- 
rounding country in gunny sacks brought on heavy carts drawn 
by large mules, as seen in Fig. 182. Enormous quantities had been 
stacked in the open along the tracks, with no shelter whatever, 
awaiting the arrival of trains to move them to export harbours. 

The planting here, as elsewhere, is in rows, but not of one kind 
of grain. Most frec^uently two rows of maize, kaoliang or millet 
alternated with the soy beans, and usually not more than 28 inches 
apart. Such planting secures the requisite sunshine with a larger 
number of plants on the field; it secures a continuous general 



THE GREAT WALL 



S07 



distribution of the roots of the nitrogen-fixing soy beans in the 
soil of the whole field every season, and permits the soil to be 
more continuously and more completely laid under tribute by 
the root systems. In places where the stand of corn or millet 
was too open the gaps were filled with the soy beans. Such a 
system of planting possibly permits a more immediate utilization 
of the nitrogen gathered from the soil air in the root nodules, as 
these die and undergo nitrification during the same season, while 
the crops are yet on the ground, and so far as phosphorus and 
potassium compounds are liberated by this decay, they too would 
become available for the crops. 




Fig. 182. - Exportation of soy beans from Manchuria. Lwanchow, Chihli. 



The end of the day's journey was at Shanhaikwan on the 
boundary between Chihli and Manchuria, the train stopping at 
6.20 p.m. for the night. Stepping upon the veranda from our 
room on the second floor of a Japanese inn in the early morning, 
there stood before us, sullen and grey, the eastern terminus of 
the Great Wall, which winds 1,500 miles westward across twenty 
degrees of longitude, and has endured through twenty-one cen- 
turies. It is the most stupendous piece of construction ever con- 
ceived by man and executed by a nation. More than 20 feet 
thick at the base and more than 12 feet on the top; rising 15 to 30 
feet above the ground with parapets along both faces, and towers 
every 200 yards rising 20 feet higher, it must have been - having 



308 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

in view the times and the methods of warfare then practised - 
when defended by their thousands, the boldest and most efficient 
national defence ever constructed. Nor in the economy of con- 
struction and maintenance has it ever been equalled. 

Even if it be true that 20,000 masons toiled through ten years 
in its building, defended by 400,000 soldiers, fed by a commissariat 
of 20,000 more and supported by 30,000 others in the transport, 
quarry and potters' service, she would then have been using less 
than eight-tenths per cent of her population, reckoned as 60,000,000 
at that time; while, according to Edmond Thery's estimate, the 
officers and soldiers of Europe to-day, in time of peace, constitute 
1 per cent of a population of 400,000,000 of people, and these, 
at only one dollar each per day for food, clothing and loss of 
producing power, would cost her nations, in ten years, more than 
$14,000 million. China, with her present habits and customs, 
would more easily have maintained her army of 470,000 men on 30 
cents each per day, or for a total ten-year cost of but $520,000,000. 
The French cabinet in 1900 approved a naval programme involv- 
ing an expenditure of $()00,000,000 during the next ten years, a 
tax of more than $15 for every man, woman and child in the 
Republic. 

Leaving Shanhaikwan at 5.20 in the morning and reaching 
Mukden at G.30 in the evening, we rode the entire day through 
Manchurian fields. Manchuria has an area of 303,700 square 
miles, equal to that of both Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska and 
Iowa combined. It has roughly the outline of a huge boot, and 
could one slide it eastward until Port Arthur was at Washington, 
Shanhaikwan would fall well toward Pittsburg, both at the tip 
of the broad toe to the boot. The foot would lie across Pennsyl- 
vania, New York, New Jersey and all of New England, extending 
beyond New Brunswick with the heel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
Harbin, at the instep of the boot, would lie 50 miles east of Mon- 
treal and the exjiancling leg would reach north-westward nearly to 
James Bay, entirely to the north of the Ottawa river and the 
Canadian Pacific, spanning 1,000 miles of latitude and 900 miles 
of longitude. 

The Liao plain, 30 miles wide, and the central Sungari plain 
are the largest in Manchuria, forming together a long narrow 
valley floor between two parallel mountain systems and extending 



PLAINS AND FORESTS 309 

north-easterly from the Liao gulf, between Port Arthur and Shan- 
haikwan, up the Liao river and down the Sungari to the Amur, a 
distance of 800 or more miles. These plains have a fertile, deep 
soil, and it is on them and other lesser river bottoms that Man- 
churian agriculture is developed, supporting eight or nine million 
people on a cultivated acreage possibly not greater than 25,000 
square miles. 

Manchuria has great forest and grazing possibilities awaiting 
future development, as well as much mineral wealth. The popula- 
tion of Tsitsihar, in the latitude of middle North Dakota, swells 
from 30,000 to 70,000 during September and October, when the 
Mongols bring their cattle in to market. In the middle province, 
at the head of steam navigation on the Sungari, because of the 
abundance and cheapness of lumber, Kirin has become a ship- 
building centre for Chinese junks. The Sungari - Milky - river is 
a large stream carrying more water at flood season than the Amur 
above its mouth, the latter being navigable 450 miles for steamers 
drawing 12 feet of water, and 1,500 miles for those drawing 4 feet, 
so that during the summer season the middle and northern pro- 
vinces have natural inland waterways, but the outlet to the sea is 
far to the north and closed by ice six months of the 3'^ear. 

Not far beyond the Great Wall of China, fast falling into ruin, 
partly through the appropriation of its material for building 
purposes now that it has outlived its usefulness, another broad, 
nearly dry stream-bed was crossed. There, in full bloom, was what 
appeared to be the wild white rose seen earlier, farther south, 
west of Suchow, having a remarkable profusion of small white 
bloom in clusters resembling the Rambler rose. One of these 
bushes growing wild there on the bank of the canal had overspread 
a chmip of trees, one of which was 30 feet in height, enveloping 
it in a mantle of bloom, as seen in the upper section of Fig. 183. 
The lower section of the illustration is a closer view showing the 
clusters. The stem of this rose, 3 feet above the ground, measured 
14-5 inches in circumference. If it would thrive in western 
countries nothing could be better for parks and pleasure drives. 
Later on our journey we saw it many times in bloom along the 
railway between Mukden and Antung, but nowhere attaining so 
large a growth. The blossoms are scant three-fourths of an inch in 
diameter, usually in compact clusters of three to eleven,sometimes 



310 



MANCHURIA AND KOREA 



in twos and occasionally standing singly. The leaves are five- 
foliate, sometimes trifoliate; leaflets broadly lanceolate, accumi- 







.-^•-r' ■«.'-^^,. 



Fig. 183. - Wild white rose in bloom west of Suchow, June 2nd, and in southern 
Manchuria, June 18th. Lower section, close view of same, showing clusters. 

nate and finely serrate; thorns minute, recurrent and few, only on 
the smaller branches. 

In a field beyond, a small donkey was drawing a stone roller 
3 feet long and 1 foot in diameter, firming the crests of narrow. 



FIELD SCENES 311 

sharp, recently formed ridges, two at a time. Millet, maize and 
kaoliang were here the chief crops. Another nearly dry stream 
was crossed, where the fields became more rolling and much cut 
by deep gulleys, the first instances we had seen in China except 
on the steep hill-sides about Tsingtao. Not all of the lands here 
were cultivated, and on the untilled areas herds of fifty to a 
hundred goats, pigs, cattle, horses and donkeys were grazing. 

Fields in Manchuria are larger than in China and some rows 
were a full quarter of a mile long, so that cultivation was being 
done with donkeys and cattle, and large numbers of men were 
working in gangs of four, seven, ten, twenty, and in one field as 
high as fifty, hoeing millet. Such a crew as the largest mentioned 
could probably be hired at 10 cents each, gold, per day, and 
were probably men from the thickly settled portions of Shantung 
who had left in the spring, expecting to return in September or 
October. Both labourers and working animals were taking dinner 
in the fields, and earlier in the day we had seen several instances 
where hay and feed were being taken to the field on a wooden 
sled, with the plough and other tools. At noon this was serving as 
manger for the cattle, mules or donkeys. 

In fields where the close, deep furrowing and ridging was being 
done the team often consisted of a heavy ox and two small donkeys 
driven abreast, the three walking in adjacent rows, the plough 
following the ox, or a heavy mule instead. - 

The rainy season had not begun and in many fields there was 
planting and transplanting where water was used in separate hills, 
sometimes brought in pails from a near-by stream, and in other 
cases on carts provided with tanks. Holes were made along the 
crests of the ridges with the blade of a narrow hoe and a little 
water poured in each hill, from a dipper, before planting or setting. 
These were additional instances of the farmers' willingness to 
incur additional labour to save time for the maturing of the crop 
by assisting germination in a soil too dry to make it certain, until 
the rains came. 

It appears probable that the strong ridging and the close level 
rows so largely adopted here must have marked advantages in 
utilizing the rainfall, especially that portion of it which comes 
early, and that which comes later also if it should come in heavy 
showers. With steep narrow ridging, heavy rains would be shed 



312 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

at once to the bottom of the deep furrows without over-saturating 
the ridges, while the wet soil in the bottom of the furrows would 
favour deep percolation with lateral capillary flow under the 
ridges from the furrows, carrying both moisture and soluble plant 
food where they will be most completely and quickly available. 
When the rain comes in heavy showers each furrow may serve 
as a long reservoir, which will prevent washing and at the same 
time permit quick penetration. The ridges never becoming flooded 
or puddled, permit the soil air to escape readily as the water from 
the furrows sinks. This it cannot easily do in flat fields when 
the rains fall rapidly and fill all the soil pores, because when this 
happens the soil pores are closed to the escape of air from below, 
which must take place before the water can enter. 

When rows are only 24 to 28 inches apart, ridging is not suffi- 
ciently wasteful of soil moisture - because of the greater evapora- 
tion due to increased surface - to compensate for the other advan- 
tages gained, and hence the practice described in the preceding 
paragraph, for these conditions, appears sound. 

The application of finely pulverized earth compost to fields 
about to be planted, and in some cases where the fields were 
already planted, continued general after leaving Shanhaikwan, 
as it had been before. Compost stacks were common in yards 
wherever buildings were close enough to the track to be seen. 
Much of the way about one-third of the fields were yet to be, or 
had just been, planted, and in a great majority of these compost 
fertilizer had been laid down for use on them, or was being taken 
to them in large heavy carts drawn sometimes by three mules. 
Between Sarhougon and Ningyuenchow fourteen fields thus fer- 
tilized were counted in less than half a mile; ten others in the next 
mile; eleven in the mile and a quarter following. In the next two 
miles 100 fields were coimted, and just before reaching the station 
we counted during five minutes, with watch in hand, ninety-five 
fields to be planted, upon which this fertilizer had been brought. 
In some cases the compost was being spread in fiirrows between 
the rows of a last year's crop, evidently to be turned under, thus 
reversing the position of the ridges. 

After passing Lienshan, where the railway runs near the sea, 
a sail was visible and many stacks of salt piled about the evapora- 
tion fields were associated with the revolving sail windmills already 



FIELD SCENES 313 

described. Here, too, large numbers of cattle, horses, mules and 
donkeys were grazing on the untilled lowlands, beyond which 
we traversed a section where all fields were planted, where no 
fertilizer was piled in the field, but where many groups of men 
were busy hoeing, sometimes twenty in a gang. 

Chinese soldiers with bayoneted guns stood guard at every 
railway station between Shanhaikwan and Mukden, and from 
Chinchowfu our coach was occupied by a Chinese official with 
guests and military attendants, including armed soldiers. The 
official and his guests were an attractive group of men with 
pleasant faces and winning manners, clad in many garments of 
richly-figured silk of bright, attractive, but unobtrusive, colours, 
who talked, seriously or in mirth, almost incessantly. They took 
the train about one o'clock and lunch was immediately served 
in Chinese style, but the last course was not brought until nearly 
four o'clock. At every station soldiers stood in line in the attitude 
of salute until the official car had passed. 

Just before reaching Chinchowfu we saw the first planted 
fields littered with stubble of the previous crop, and in many 
instances such stubble was being gathered and removed to the 
villages, large stacks having been piled in the yards to be used 
either as fuel or in the production of compost. As the train 
approached Taling-ho groups of men were hoeing in millet fields, 
thirty in one group on one side and fifty in another group on the 
other. Many small herds of cattle, horses, donkeys and flocks of 
goats and sheep were feeding along stream courses and on the 
unplanted fields. Beyond the station, after crossing the river, 
still another sand dune tract was passed, planted with willows, 
millet occupying the level areas between the dunes. Not far be- 
yond, wide untilled flats on which many herds were grazing were 
crossed. As we neared Koupantze, where a branch of the railway 
traverses the Liao plain to the port of Newchwang, they were 
dotted with grave mounds. It was in this region that there came 
the first suggestion of resemblance to our marshland meadows; and 
very soon there w^ere seen approaching from the distance loads so 
green that except for the large size one would have judged them to 
be fresh grass. They were loads of cured hay in the brightest green, 
the result, no doubt, of curing under their dry weather conditions. 

At Ta Hu Shan large quantities of grain in sacks were piled 



314 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

along the tracks and in the freight yards, but under matting 
shelters. Near here, too, large three-mule loads of dry earth 
compost were going to the fields and men were busy pulverizing 
and mixing it on the threshing-floors preparatory for use. Nearly 
all crops growing were one or another of the millets, but consider- 
able areas were yet unplanted, and on these cattle, horses, mules 
and donkeys were feeding, 

When the train reached Sinminfu, where the railway turns 
abruptly eastward to cross the Liao-ho to reach Mukden, we saw 
the first extensive massing of the huge bean cakes for export, 
together with enormous quantities of soy beans in sacks piled 
along the railway, or loaded on cars made up in trains ready to 
move. Leaving this station we passed among fields of grain look- 
ing decidedly yellow, the first indication we had seen in China of 
crops nitrogen-hungry and of soils markedly deficient in available 
nitrogen. Beyond the next station the fields were spotted and 
uneven as well as yellow, recalling conditions so commonly seen 
at home and which had hitherto been conspicuously absent here. 
We then crossed the Liao-ho with its broad channel of shifting 
sands. The river carried the largest volimie of water we had yet 
seen, although the stream was very low and still, characteristic of 
the close of the dry season of semj-arid climates. We soon reached 
another station where the freight yards and all of the space along 
the tracks were piled high with bean cakes. 

Since the Japanese-Russian war the shipments of soy beans 
and of bean cake from Manchuria have increased enormously. Up 
to this time there had been exports to the southern provinces of 
China, where the bean cakes were used as fertilizers for the rice 
fields, but the new extensive markets have so raised the price 
that in several instances we were informed they could not now 
afford to use bean cake for this purpose. From Newchwang alone, 
in 1905, between January 1st and March 31st, there went abroad 
2,286,000 pounds of bean and bean cake, and in 1906 the amoimt 
had increased to 4,883,000 pounds. But a report published in the 
Tientsin papers as official stated that the value of the export of 
bean cake and soy beans from Dalny for the months ending March 
31st had been, in 1909, only $1,635,000, gold, compared with 
$3,065,000 in the corresponding period of 1908, and of $5,120,000 
in 1907, showing a marked decrease. 



THE MILLETS 315 

Edward C. Parker, writing from Mukden for the Review of 
Revieivs, stated: 'The bean cake shipments from Newchwang, 
Dalny and Antung in 1908 amounted to 515,198 tons; beans, 
239,298 tons; bean oil, 1,930 tons; having a total value of 
$15,016,649 (U.S. gold).' 

According to the composition of soy beans as indicated in 
Hopkins' table of analyses, these shipments of beans and bean 
cake would remove an aggregate of 6,171 tons of phosphorus, 
10,097 tons of potassium, and 47,812 tons of nitrogen from 
Manchurian soils as the result of export for that year. Could such 
a rate have been maintained during two thousand years, there 
would have been sold from these soils 20,194,000 tons of potas- 
sium, 12,342,000 tons of phosphorus, and 95,624,000 tons of nitro- 
gen; and the phosphorus, were it thus exported, would have 
exceeded more than threefold all thus far produced in the United 
States; it would have exceeded the world's output in 1906 more 
than eighteen times, even assuming that all phosphate rock mined 
was 75 per cent pure. 

The choice of the millets and the sorghums as the staple bread 
crops of northern China and Manchuria has been quite as remark- 
able as the selection of rice for the more southern latitudes, and 
the two together have played a most important part in determin- 
ing the high maintenance efficiency of these people. In nutritive 
value these grains ranl<: well with wheat; the stems of the larger 
varieties are extensively used for both fuel and building material, 
while the smaller forms make excellent forage and have been used 
directly for maintaining the organic content of the soil. Their 
rapid development and their high endurance of drought adapt 
them admirably to the climate of north China and Manchuria, 
where the rains begin only after late June and where weather too 
cold for growth comes earlier in the autunm. The quick maturity 
of these crops also permits them to be used to great advantage even 
in the south, where the system of multiple cropping is so generally 
adopted, while their great resistance to drought - enabling them 
to remain at a standstill for a long time when the soil is too dry 
for growiih and yet to push ahead rapidly when favourable rains 
come - permits them to be used on the higher lands where water 
is not available for irrigation. 

.In the Shantung province the large millet, sorghum or kaoliang, 



316 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

yields as high as 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of seed per acre, and 5,600 
to 6,000 pounds of air-dry stems, equal in weight to 1-6 to 1-7 
cords of dry oak wood. In the region of Mukden, Manchuria, its 
average yield of seed is placed at 35 bushels of 60 pounds weight 
per acre, and with this comes 1| tons of fuel or of building 
material. Hosie states that the kaoliang is the staple food of the 
population of Manchuria and the principal grain food of the work 
anunals. The gram is first washed in cold water and then poured 
into a kettle with four times its volume of boilmg water and cooked 
for an hour, without salt, as with rice. It is eaten with chopsticks 
with boiled or salted vegetables. He states that an ordinary 
servant requires about 2 poimds of this grain per day, and that 
a workman at heavy labour will take double the amount. A 
Chinese friend of his, keeping five servants, supplied them with 
240 pounds of millet per month, together with 16 pomids of native 
flour for two days, and meat for two days, the amount not being 
stated. Two of the small millets {Setaria Italica and Panicum 
milliaceiim), wheat, maize and buckwheat are other grains which 
are used as food, but chiefly to give variety and change of diet. 

Large quantities of matting and wrappings are also made from 
the leaves of the large millet, which serve many purposes, corre- 
sponding with the rice mattings and bags of Japan and southern 
China. 

The small millets, in Shantung, yield as high as 2,700 pounds 
of seed and 4,800 pounds of straw per acre. In Japan, in the year 
1906, there were grown 737,719 acres of foxtail, barnyard and 
proso millet, yielding 17,084,000 bushels of seed, or an average of 
23 bushels per acre. In addition to the millets, Japan grew, the 
same year, 5,964,300- bushels of buckwheat on 394,523 acres, or 
an average of 15 bushels per acre. The next engraving. Fig. 184, 
shows a crop of millet already 6 inches high planted between rows 
of Windsor beans which had matured about the middle of June. 
The leaves had dropped, the beans had been picked from the stems, 
and a little later, when the roots had had time to decay, the bean 
stems would be pulled and tied in bundles for use as fuel or for 
fertilizer. 

We had reached Mukden thoroughly tired after a long day of 
continuous close observation and writing. The Astor House, where 
we were to stop, was three miles from the station and the only 



MUKDEN 317 

conveyance to meet the train was a four-seated springless, open, 
senii-haggage carry all, and it was a full hour lumbering its way 
to our hotel. But here, as everywhere in the Orient, the foreigner 
meets scenes and phases of life competent to divert his attention 
from almost any discomfort. Nothing could be more striking, 
than the peculiar mode the Manchu ladies have of dressing their 
hair, many instances of which were passed on the streets during 
this early evening ride. It was fearfully and wonderfully done, 




Fig. 184. - Field of millet planted between rows of Windsor beans. Chiba, Japan. 

laid in the smoothest, glossiest black, with nearly the lateral 
spread of the tail of a turkey-cock and much of the backward 
curve of that of the rooster; far less attractive than the plainer, 
refined, mcdcst, yet highly artistic style adopted by either Chinese 
or Japanese ladies. 

The journey from Mukden to Antung required two days, the 
train stopping for the night at Tsaohokow. Our route lay most 
of the way through mountainous or steep hilly country and our 
train was made up of diminutive coaches. They were drawn by 



318 MANCHURIA AND K R 1^: A 

a tiny engine along a 3-foot 2-inch narrow-gauge track of light 
rails laid by the Japanese during the war w^th Russia, for the 
purpose of moving their armies and supplies to the hotly -contested 
fields in the Liao and Sungari plains. Many of the grades were 
steep, the curves sharp, and in several places it was necessary 
to divide the short train to enable the engines to negotiate them. 

Southward over the Liao plain the crops were almost exclu- 
sively millet and soy beans, with a little barley, w^heat, and a few 
oats. Between Mukden and the first station across the Hun river 
we had passed twenty-four good-sized fields of soy beans on one 
side of the river and twenty-two on the other, and before reaching 
the hilly country, after travelling a distance of possibly 15 miles, 
we had passed 309 other and similar fields close along the track. 
In this distance also we had passed two of the monuments erected 
by the Japanese, marking sites of their memorable battles. These 
fields were everywhere flat, lying from 16 to 20 feet above the 
beds of the nearly dry streams, and the cultivation was mostly 
done with horses or cattle. 

After leaving the plains country the railway traversed a narrow 
winding valley less than a mile w'ide, with gradient so steep that 
our train was divided. Fully 60 per cent of the hill-slopes were 
cultivated nearly to the summit, although rising apparently 
more than 1 in 3 to 5 feet. The uncultivated slopes were closely 
wooded with young trees, few more than 20 to 30 feet high, but 
in blocks evidently of different ages. Beyond the pass many of 
the cultivated slopes have walled terraces. We crossed a large 
stream where railway ties were being rafted down the river. Just 
beyond this river the train was again divided to ascend a gradient 
of one in thirty, reaching the summit by five times switching 
back, and matched on the other side of the pass by a down grade 
of one in forty. 

At many of the farm-houses in the narrow valleys along the 
way large rectangular, flat-topped compost piles were passed, 
30 to 40 inches high and 20, 30, 40 and even in o;ie case as much 
as 60 feet square on the ground. More and more it became evident 
that these moimtain and hill lands were originally heavily wooded 
and that the new growth springs up quickly, developing rapidly. 
It was clear also that the custom of cutting over these wooded 
areas at frequent intervals is very old, not always in the same 



NATIVE MACHINERY 319 

stage of growth but usually when the trees are quite small. 
Considerable quantities of cordwood were })iled at the stations 
along the railway and were being loaded on the cars. This was 
always either round wood or sticks split but once; and much 
charcoal, made mostly from round wood or sticks split but once, 
was being shipped in sacks shaped like those used for rice, seen 
in Fig. 161. Some strips of the forest growth had been allowed 
to stand midisturbed apparently for twenty or more years, but 
most areas have been cut at more frequent intervals, often once 
in three to five, or perhaps ten, years. 

At several places on the rapid streams crossed, prototypes of 
the modern turbine water-wheel were installed for grinding beans 
or grain. As with native machinery everywhere in China, these 
wheels were reduced to the lowest terms and the principle set to 
work almost unclothed. The turbines were of the downward 
discharge type, much resembling our modern windmills, 10 to 16 
feet in diameter, set horizontally on a vertical axis rising through 
the floor of the mill, with the vanes surrounded by a rim, the 
water dropping through the wheel, reacting when reflected from 
the obliquely set vanes. American engineers and mechanics 
would pronounce these crude, primitive and inefiicient. A truer 
view would regard them as examples of a masterful grasp of 
principle by some man who long ago saw the unused energy of the 
stream and succeeded thus in turning it to account. 

Both days of our journey had been bright and very warm, and, 
although we took the train early in the morning at Mukden, a 
young Japanese, anticipating the heat, entered the train clad only 
in his kimono and sandals, carrying a suit-case and another bundle. 
He rode all day, the most comfortably, if immodestly, clad man 
on the train. The next morning he took his seat in front of us 
clad in the same garb, but before the train reached Antung he 
took down his suit-case and then and there attired himself in a 
good foreign suit, folding his kimono and packing it away with 
his sandals. 

From Antvmg we crossed the Yalu on the ferry to New Wiju 
at 6.30 a.m., June 22nd. We found ourselves in quite a different 
country and among a very different people, although all of the 
railway officials, employees, police and guards were Japanese, as 
they had been from Mukden. At Antung and New Wiju the Yalu 



320 MANCHUEIA AND KOREA 

is a broad slow stream resembling an arm of the sea more than a 
river, reminding one of the St. Johns at Jackson\nlle, Florida. 

June 22nd proved to be one of the national festival days in 
Korea, called 'Swing day,' and throughout our entire ride to 
Seoul the fields were nearly all deserted and throngs of people, 
arrayed in gala dress, appeared all along the line of the railway, 
sometimes congregating in bodies of two to three thousand or 
more. Many swings had been hung and were being enjoyed by 
the young people. Boys and men were bathing in all sorts of 
'swimming holes" and places. So, too, there were many large open- 
air gatherings being addressed by public speakers. 

Nearly every one was dressed in white outer garments made from 
some fabric which, although not mosquito netting, was nearly as 
open. It was possessed of a remarkable stiffness, which seemed to 
take and retain every dent w*ith astonishing effect and was suffi- 
ciently transparent to reveal a third undergarment. The women 
wore full outstanding skirts, and the trousers which went with 
these were proportionately full but tied close about the ankles. 
The garments seemed to be possessed of a powerful repulsion 
which held them quite apart and away from the person, no doubt 
contributing much to comfort. It was windy, but hot, sultry and 
sticky, and it made one feel cool to see these open garments 
surging in the wind. 

The Korean men, like the Chinese, wear the hair long but not 
braided in a queue. No part of the head is shaved, but the hair is 
wound in a tight coil on the top of the head, secured by a pin 
which, in the case of the Korean who rode in our coach from Muk- 
den to Antung, was a modern, substantial tenpenny wire nail. 
The tall, narrow, conical cro%\Tis of the open hats, woven from 
thin bamboo splints, are evidently designed to accommodate this 
style of hair-dressing as well as to be cool. 

Here, as in China and Manchuria, nearly all crops are planted 
in rows, including the cereals, such as wheat, rye, barley and oats. 
We traversed first a flat marshy country with sandy soil and water 
not more than 4 feet below the surface where, on the lowest areas 
a close ally of our wild flower-de-luce was in bloom. Wheat was 
coming into head, but corn and millet were smaller than in Man- 
churia. We had left New Wiju at 7.30 in the morning and at 8.15 
we passed from the low land into a hill country with narrow valleys. 



THATCHED ROOFS 



321 



Scattering young pine, seldom more than 10 to 25 feet high, occu- 
pied the slopes and, as we came nearer, the hills were seen to be 
clothed with many small oak, the sprouts clearly not more than 
one or two years old. Roofs of dwellings in the country were 
usually thatched with straw, laid after the manner of shingles, as 
may be seen in Fig. 185, where the hills beyond show the low tree 
growth referred to, but unusually dense. Bundles of pine boughs, 




Fig. 185. 



Group of Korean farm-houses, with thatched roofs and earthen walls, 
standing at the foot of wooded hills. 



stacked and sheltered from the weather, were common along the 
way and evidently used for fuel. 

At 8.25 we passed through the first of many tunnels along the 
route, the longest requiring thirty seconds for the passing of the 
train. The valley beyond was occupied by fields of wheat where 
beans were planted between the rows. Thus far none of the fields 
had been as thoroughly tilled and well cared for as those seen in 
China, nor were the crops as good. Farther along we passed hills 
where the pines were all of two ages, one set about 30 feet high 

F.F.C. L 



322 



MANCHURIA AND KOREA 



and the others 12 to 15 feet or less, among which were numerous 
oak sprouts. Quite possibly these are used as food for the wild 
silkworms. In some places appearances indicate that the oak and 
other deciduous growth, with the grass, may be cut annually 
and only the pines allowed to stand for longer periods. As we 
proceeded southward and passed Kosui the young oak sprouts 
were seen to cover the hills, often stretching over the slopes much 
like a regular crop, standing at a. height of 2 to 1 foot. Fresh bundles 




Fig. 186. -General view across valley, showing Korean rice fields being trans- 
planted, and in the foreground fertilized with grefn herbage from the hill 
lands. 



of these sprouts were seen at houses along the foot of the slopes, 
again suggesting that the leaves may be for the tussur silkworms 
although the time appears late for the first moulting. After we 
had left Seoul, entering the broader valleys where rice was more 
extensively grown, the use of oak boughs and green grass brought 
down from the hill lands for green manure was very extensive. 
After the winter and early spring crops have been harvested 
the narrow ridges on which tiioy are grown are turned into furrows 
by means of a simple ])lougli drawn by a heavy bullock, different 
from the cattle in China but closely similar to those in Japan. 
The fields are then flooded until they have the appearance seen 
in Fig. 10. Over these flooded ridges the green grass and oak 



KOREAN RICE CULTURE 323 

boughs are spread, when the fields are again ploughed and the 
material worked into the wet soil. If this working is not completely 
successful, men enter the fields and tramp the surface until every 
twig and blade is submerged. The middle section in the same 
illustration has been fitted and transplanted; in front of it and 
on the left are two other fields once ploughed but not fertilized; 
these far to the right have had the green manure a])plicd and the 
ground ploughed a second time but not finished, and in the inime- 





-:'^^^^ 


r ' ' 


.' 




















^ S^^ 


^'''*'*^liCii*'-iMg|jwy^ 






nk 






a 


s^ V" 


- ■> '' iS — ^ — --_ L. 




1^^ 



Fig. 187. - Rico field covered with oak leaves and grass brought down from the 
hills, one half of which has been tramped beneath the surface by the labourer 
at work. 



diate foreground the grass and boughs have been scattered but 
the second ploughing is not yet done. 

We passed men and bullocks coming from the hill lands loaded 
with this green herbage, and as we proceeded towards Fusan more 
and more of the hill area was being made to contribute materials 
for green manure for the cultivated fields. The foreground of Fig. 
186 had been thus treated and so had the field in Fig. 187, where 
the man was engaged in tramping the dressing beneath the sur- 
face. In very many cases this material was laid along the margin 
of the paddy fields; in other cases it had been taken upon the 
fields as soon as the grain was cut and was lying in piles among 
the bundles; while in still other cases the material for green 
manure had been carried between the rows while the grain was 



324 MANCHUEIA AND KOREA 

still standing, but nearly ready to harvest. In some fields a full 
third of a bushel of the green stuff had been laid down at intervals 
of 3 feet over the whole area. In others piles of ashes alternated 
with those of herbage, and again manure and ashes mixed had been 
distributed in alternate piles with the green manure; and in others 
again we saw untreated straw distributed through the fields await- 
ing application. At Shindo this straw had the appearance of hav- 
ing been dipped in or smeared with some mixture, apparently of 
mud and ashes or possibly of some compost which had been worked 
into a thin paste with water. 

After passing Keizan, mountain herbage had been brought 
down from the hills in large bales on cleverly constructed racks 
saddled to the backs of bullocks, and in one field we saw a man 
who had just come to his little field with an enormous load borne 
upon his easel-like packing appliance. Thus we find the Koreans 
also adopting the rice crop, which yields heavily under conditions 
of abundant water; we find them supplementing a heavy summer 
rainfall with water from their hills, and bringing to their fields 
besides both green herbage for humus and organic matter, and 
ashes derived from the fuel which again comes from the hills. 
In these ways they make good the losses unavoidable through 
intense cropping. 

The amount of forest growth in Korea, as we saw it, in proxi- 
mity to the cultivated valleys, is nowhere large and is fairly 
represented in Figs. 185, 188 and 189. There were clear evidences 
of periodic cutting and considerable amounts of cordwood split 
from timber a foot through were being brought to the stations 
on the backs of animals. In some places there was evident very 
serious soil erosion, as may be seen in Fig. 189. One such region 
was passed just before reaching Kinusan, but generally the hills 
are well rounded and covered with a low growth of shrubs and 
herbaceous plants. 

Southernmost Korea has the latitude of the northern boundary 
of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, while the 
north-east corner attains that of Madison, Wisconsin, and the 
northern boundary of Nebraska, the country thus spanning some 
nine degrees or 600 miles of latitude. It has an area of some 82,000 
square miles, about equalling the State of Minnesota, but much 
of its surface is occupied by steep hill and mountain land. The 



FOREST GROWTH 



325 




Fxo. li 



i. - Rico fields at liead of mountuiu valley, with scattering pines in the 
hill lands beyond. 




FlQ. 



189. - Looking across fields of wheat at an eroding liillside over whiclj loreet 
growth ia being allowed to spread. 



326 



MANCHURIA AND KOREA 



rainy season had not yet set in, June 23rd. Wheat and the small 
grains were practically all harvested southward of 8ooul and the 
people were everywhere busy with their flails threshing in the 
open, about the dwellings or in the fiekls, four flails often beating 
together on the same lot of grain. As we journeyed southward 
the valleys and the fields became wider and more extensive, and 
the crops, as well as the cultural methods, were clearly better. 




Fia. 190. - Korean swinging scoop for irrigation where tlie water is raised 
3 or 4 feet. 



Neither the foot-power, animal-power, nor the wooden chain 
puin]) of the Chinese were observed in Korea for lifting water, 
but we saw many instances of the long-handled, spoonlike swinging 
scoop hung over the water by a cord from tall tripods, after the 
manner seen in Fig. 190, each operated by one man and appar- 
ently with high efficiency for low lifts. Two instances also were 
observed of the form of lift seen in Fig. 155, where the man 
walks the circumference of the wheel, so commonly observed in 
Japan. Much hemp was being grown in southern Korea but every- 



RAILROAD LUNCH 327 

where on very small isolated areas which flecked the landscape 
with the deepest green, each little field probably representing 
the crop of a single family. * 

It was 6.30 p.m. when our train reached Fusan after a hot and 
dusty ride. The service had been good and fairly comfortable but 
the ice- water tanks of American trains were absent, their place 
being supplied by cooled bottled waters of various brands, 
including soda-water, sold by Japanese boys at nearly every im- 
portant station. Close connection was made by trains with 
steamers to and from Japan and we went immediately on board 
the Iki Maru which was to weigh anchor for Moji and Shimonoseki 
at 8 p.m. Although small, the steamer was well equipped, pro- 
viding the best of service. We were fortunate in having a smooth 
passage, anchoring at 6.30 the next morning and making close 
connection with the train for Nagasaki, landing at the wharf with 
the aid of a steam launch. 

Our ride by train through the island of Kyushu carried us 
through scenes not widely different from those we had just left. 
The journey was continuously among fields of rice, with Korean 
features strongly marked but usually under better and more 
intensified culture, and the season, too, was a little more advanced. 
Here the ploughing was done mostly with horses instead of the 
heavy bullocks so exclusively employed in Korea. Coming from 
China into Korea, and from there into Japan, it appeared very 
clear that in agricultural methods and appliances the Koreans 
and Japanese are mutually more similar than the Chinese and 
Koreans, and the more we came to see of the Japanese methods 
the more strongly the impression became fixed that either the 
Japanese had derived their methods from the Koreans or the 
Koreans had taken theirs from Japan more than from China. 

It was on this ride from Moji to Nagasaki that we were intro- 
duced to the attractive and very satisfactory manner of serving 
lunches to travellers on the trains in Japan. At important stations 
hot tea is brought to the car windows in small glazed earthenware 
teapots provided with cover and bail, and accompanied with 
a teacup of the same ware. The set and contents could be 
purchased for 5 sen, 2| cents U.S. currency. All tea is served 
without milk or sugar. The lunches were substantial and put 
together in a neat sanitary manner in a three-compartment 



328 MANCHURIA AND KOREA 

wooden box, carefully made from clear lumber joined with wooden 
pegs and perfect joints. Packed in the cover we found a paper 
napkin, toothpicks and a pair of chopsticks. In the second 
compartment there were thin slices of meat, chicken and fish, 
together with bamboo sprouts, pickles, cakes and small bits of 
salted vegetables, while the lower and chief compartment was 
filled with rice cooked stiff and without salt, as is the custom in 
the three countries. The box was about 6 inches long, 4 inches 
deep and 3^ inches wide. These lunches are handed to travellers 
neatly wrapped in spotless thin white paper daintily tied with a 
bit of colour, all in exchange for 25 sen -12-5 cents. Thus for 15 
cents the traveller is handed, through the car window, in a respect- 
ful manner, a square meal which he may eat at his leisure. 



XVII 

RETURN TO JAPAN 

WE had returned to Japan in the midst of the first rainy 
season, and all the day through, June 25th, and two 
nights, a gentle rain fell at Nagasaki. Across the narrow street 
from Hotel Japan were two of its guest houses, standing near the 
front of a wall-faced terrace rising 28 feet above the street and 
facing the beautiful harbour. They were accessible only by wind- 
ing stone steps between retaining walls overhimg with a wealth 
of shrubbery green and looking almost liquid in the drip of the 
rain. Over such another series of steps, but longer and more 
winding, we found our way to the American Consulate where in 
beautifully secluded quarters Consul-General Scidmore escaped 
many of the annoyances of settling imagined petty grievances 
arising between American tourists and the ricksha boys. 

Through the kind offices of the Imperial University of Sapporo 
and of the National Department of Agriculture and Commerce, 
Professor Tokito met us at Nagasaki, to act as escort through most 
of the journey in Japan. Our first visit was to the prefectural 
Agricultural Experiment Station at Nagasaki. There are forty 
others in the four main islands, one to an average area of 4,280 
square miles, and to each 1,200,000 people. 

The island of Kyushu, whose latitude is that of middle Missis- 
sippi and north Louisiana, has two rice harvests, and gardeners 
at Nagasaki grow three crops each year. The gardener and his 
family work about 5 tan, or a little less than IJ acres, realizing 
an annual return of some $250 per acre. To maintain these 
earnings fertilizers are applied rated worth $60 per acre, divided 
between the three crops, the materials used being largely the 
wastes of the city, animal manure, mud from the drains, fuel 
ashes and sod, all composted together. If this expenditure for 
fertilizers appears high it must be remembered that nearly the 
whole product is sold and that there are three crops each year. 
Such intense culture requires a heavy return if large yields are to 
be maintained. Good agricultural lands were here valued at 300 
yen per tan, approximately $600 per acre. 

When returning toward Moji to visit the Agricultural Experi- 

329 



330 



EETURN TO JAPAN 



ment Station of Fukuoka prefecture, the rice along the first por- 
tion of the route was standing about 8 inches above the water. 
Large lotus ponds along the way occupied areas not readily 
drained, and the fringing fields between the rice fields and the 
untilled hill lands were bearing squash, maize, beans and Irish 
potatoes. Many small areas had been set to sweet potatoes on 
close narrow ridges, the tops of which were thinly strewn with 
green grass, or sometimes with straw or other Utter, for shade 
and to prevent the soil from washing and baking in the hot sun 
after rains. At Kitsu we passed near Government salt works, 
for the manufacture of salt by the evaporation of sea water, this 
industry in Japan, as in China, being a Government monopoly. 




Fig. lyi. - W orkuig grccn herbage into a flooded paddy field for green manure, 
preparatory for the following crop of rice. 



Many bundles of grass and other green herbage were collected 
along the way, gathered for use in the rice fields. In other cases 
the green manure had already been spread over the flooded paddy 
fields and was being worked beneath the surface, as seen in Fig. 
191. At this time the hill lands were clothed in the richest, deepest 
green, but the tree growth was nowhere large except immediately 
about temples, and was usually in distinct small areas with sharp 
boundaries occasioned by differences in age. Some tracts had been 
very recently cut; others were in their second, third or fourth 
years; while others still carried a growth of perhaps seven to ten 
years. At one village many bundles of the brush fuel had been 
gathered from an adjacent area, recently cleared. 



FERTILIZERS FOR RICE AND BARLEY 331 

A few fields were still bearing their crop of soy beans planted 
in February between rows of grain, and the green herbage was 
being worked into the flooded soil, for the crop of rice. Much 
compost, brought to the fields, was stacked with layers of straw 
between, laid straight, the alternate courses at right angles, 
holding the piles in rectangular form with vertical sides, some of 
which were 4 to 6 feet high and the layers of compost about 6 
inches thick. 

Just before reaching Tanjiro a region is passed where orchards 
of the candleberry tree occupy high levelled areas between rice 
fields, after the manner described for the mulberry orchards in 
Chekiang, China. These trees, when seen from a distance, have 
the appearance of our apple orchards. 

At the Fukuoka Experiment Station we learned that the usual 
depth of ploughing for the rice fields is 3-| to 4| inches, but that 
deeper ploughing gives somewhat larger yields. As an average 
of five years' trials, a depth of 7 to 8 inches increased the yield 
from 7 to 10 per cent over that of the usual depth. In this pre- 
fecture grass from the bordering hill lands is applied to the rice 
fields at rates ranging from 3,300 to 16,520 pounds green weight 
per acre, and, according to analyses given, these amounts would 
carry to the fields from 18 to 90 pounds of nitrogen, 12-4 to 63-2 
pounds of potassium, and 2-1 to 10-6 pounds of phosphorus per 
acre. 

Where bean cake is used as a fertilizer the applications may be 
at the rate of 496 pounds per acre, carrying 33-7 pounds of nitro- 
gen, nearly 5 pounds of phosphorus and 7-4 pounds of potassium. 
The earth composts are chiefly applied to the dry land fields and 
then only after they are well rotted. The fermentation is carried 
on through at least sixty days, during which the material is turned 
three times for aeration. When used on the rice fields where water 
is abundant the composts are applied in a less fermented condi- 
tion. 

The best yields of rice in this prefecture are some 80 bushels 
per acre, and crops of barley may even exceed this, the two 
crops being grown the same year, the rice following the barley. 
In most parts of Japan the gfain food of the labouring people is 
about 70 per cent naked barley mixed with 30 per cent of rice, 
both cooked and used in the same manner. The barley has a 





rounds 


per 


acre 






N 




P 


K 


6,G13 


33-0 




74 


33-8 


330 


16-7 




2-8 


3-5 


4,G30 


2G-4 




2-G 


10-2 


132 


•• 




9-9 


•• 



332 RETURN TO JAPAN 

lower market value and its use permits a larger share of the rice 
to be sold as a money crop. 

The soils are fertilized for each crop every year and the pre- 
scription for barley and rice recommended by the Experiment 
Station, for growers in this prefecture, is indicated by the following 
table: 

FERTILIZATION^ FOR NAKED BARLEY 

Fertilizers. 
Manure compost 
Rape seed cake 
Night soil 
Superphosphate 

Sum 11,705 7G-1 22-7 47-5 

FERTILIZATION FOR PADDY RICE 

]\Ianure compost 
Green manure, soy beans 
Soy bean cake 
Superphosphate 

Sum 

Total for year 20,897 149-5 44-2 100-6 

Where these recommendations are followed there is an annual 
application of fertilizer material which aggregates some 10 tons 
per acre, carrying about 150 pounds of nitrogen, 44 pounds of 
phosphorus and 100 pounds of potassium. The crop yields which 
have been associated with these applications on the Station fields 
are about 49 bushels of barley and 50 bushels of rice per acre. 

The general rotation recommended for this portion of Japan 
covers five years and consists of a crop of wheat or naked barley 
the first two years with rice as the summer crop; in the third year 
gencje, 'pink clover' {Astragalus siniciis) or some other legume for 
green manure is the winter crop, rice following in the sunmier; 
the fourth year rape is the winter crop, from which the seed is 
saved and the ash of the stems returned to the soil, or rarely the 



5,291 


26-4 


5-9 


27-1 


3,306 


19-2 


11 


19-6 


397 


27-8 


1-7 


6-4 


198 




12-8 




9,192 


73-4 


21-5 


531 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 333 

stems themselves may be turned under; on the fifth and last year 
of the rotation the broad kidney or Windsor bean is the winter 
crop, preeeding the summer crop of rice. This rotation is not 
general yet in the practice of the fanners of the section, who 
choose rape or barley and in February plant Windsor or soy beans 
between the rows for green manure. 

It was evident from our observations that the use of composts 
in fertilizing was very much more general anr] extensive in China 
than it was in (uther Korea or Japan, but, to encourage the pro- 
duction and use of compost fertilizers, this and otlicr prefectures 
have provided subsidies which permit the payment of $2.50 
annually to those farmers who prepare and use on their land a 
com})Ost heap covering 20 to 40 square yards, in accordance with 
specified directions. 

The agricultural college at Fukuoka was not in session the day 
of our visit, it being a holiday usually following the close of the 
last transplanting sea.son. Fig. 192 furnishes a view of the station 
grounds and buihlings with something of the beautiful landscape 
setting. There is nowhere in Japan the lavish expenditure of 
money on elaborate and imposing architecture which characterizes 
American colleges and stations, but in equipment for research 
work, both as to professional staff and appliances, they compare 
favourably with similar institutions in America. The dormitory 
system was in vogue in the college, providing room and board at 
8 yen per month, or $4 of U.S. currency. Eight students were 
assigned to one commodious room, each provided with a study 
table, but beds were mattresses spread upon the matting floor 
at night and compactly stored on closet sh<dves during the day. 

The Japanese plough, which is very similar to the Korean 
type, may be seen in Fig. 193, the one on the right costing 2-5 
yen and the other 2 yen. With the aid of the single handle and 
the sliding rod held in the right hand, the course of the plough 
is directed and the plough tilted in either direction, throwing the 
soil to the right or the left. 

The nursery beds for rice breeding experiments and variety 
tests by this station are shown in Fig. 194. Although these plots 
were fl(joded, the marginal plants, adjacent to the free water 
paths, were materially larger than those within and had a much 
deeper green colour, showing better feeding, but what seemed 



334 



RETURN TO JAPAN 




JAPANESE PLOUGHS 



335 



most strange was the fact that these stronger plants are never 
used in transplanting, as they do not thrive as well as those less 
vigorous. 




I'lu. 103. - Tuu .Ju]>aiiibc ploughs. 



We left the island of Kyushu in the evening of June 29th, 
crossing to the main island of Honshu, waiting in Shimonoseki 



33G 



RETURN TO JAPAN 



for the morning train. The rice-planted valleys near Sliimonoseki 
were relatively broad and the paddy fields had all been recently 
set in close rows about a foot apart and in hills in the rows. 
Mountain and hill lands wore closely wooded, largely with conifer- 
ous trees about the base, but toward and at the summits they 
were green only with herbage cut for fertilizing and feeding stock. 
Many very small trees, often not more than 1 foot high, were 
growing on the recently cut-over areas; tall slender graceful bam- 
boos clustered along the way and everywhere threw wonderful 
beauty into the landscape. Cartloads of their slender stems, 2 to 
4 inches in diameter at the base and 20 or more* feet long, were 




Flu 194. - I'luiil l)r 



liiig mid Miru'ty tt'.sl imr.si 
inont Station. 



y rii-o plats, at Fiikiioka lOxjieii- 



moving along the generally excellent, narrow, seldom fenced roads. 
On the borders and pathways between rice fields many small 
stacks of straw were in waiting to be laid between the rows of 
transplanted rice, tramped beneath the water and overspread with 
mud to enrich the soil. The farmers here, as elsewhere, must 
contend against the scouring rush, varieties of. grass and our 
common pigweeds, even in the rice fields. The large area of moun- 
tain and hill land and the relatively small area of cultivated land, 
not at this time under water and planted with rice, persisted 
throughout the journey. 

If there could be any monotony for the traveller new to this 
land of beauty it must result from the quick shifting of scenes and 



A BIT OF THE JOURNEY 337 

in the way the landscapes are pieced together, outdoing the crazi- 
est patchwork woman ever attempted; the bits are almost never 
large; they are of every shape, even puckered and crumpled and 
tilted at all angles. Here is a bit of the journey: Beyond Habu 
the foothills are thickly wooded, largely with conifers. The valley 
is extremely narrow with only small areas for rice. Bamboo are 
growing in congenial places and we pass bundles of wood cut to 
stove length. Then we cross a long narrow valley practically all 
in rice, and tlien another not half a mile wide, just before reaching 
Asa. Beyond, the fields become limited in area with the bordering 
low hills recently cut over and a new growth springing up over 
them in the form of small shrubs among which are many pine. 
Now we are in a narrow valley between small rice fields or with 
none at all, but dash into one more nearly level, with wide areas 
in rice, just before reaching Onoda, at 10.30 a.m. and continuing 
three minutes' ride beyond, when we are again between hills 
without fields and where the trees are pine with clumps of bamboo. 
In four minutes more we arc among small rice fields and at 10.35 
have passed another gap and are crossing another valley checkered 
with rice fields and lotus ponds, but in one minute more the hills 
have closed in, leaving only room for the track. At 10.37 we are 
running along a narrow valley with its terraced rice fields where 
many of the hills show naked soil among the bamboo, scattering 
pine and other small trees; then we are out among garden patches 
thickly mulched with straw. At 10.38 w6 are between higher hills 
with but narrow areas for rice stretching close along the track, 
but in two minutes these are passed and we are among low hills 
with terraced dry fields. At 10.42 we are spinning along the level 
valley with its rice, but are quickly out again among hills with 
naked soil where erosion was marked. This is just before passing 
Funkai where we are following the course of a stream some 60 feet 
wide with but little cultivated land in small areas. At 10.47 we 
are again passing narrow rice fields near the track where the 
people are busy weeding with their hands, half knee-deep in water. 
At 10.53 we enter a broader valley stretching far to the south and 
seaward, but we had crossed it in one minute, shot through another 
gap, and at 10.55 are traversing a much broader valley largely 
given over to rice, but where some of the paddy fields are bearing 
matting rush set in rows and in hills after the manner of rice. It 



338 RETURN TO JAPAN 

is here we pass Oyou and just beyond cross a stream confined 
between levees built some distance back from either bank. At 
11.17 this plain is left and we enter a narrow valley without 
fields. Thus do most of the agricultural lands of Japan lie in the 
narrowest valleys, often steeply sloping, and into which jutting 
spurs create the greatest irregularity of boundary and slope. 

The journey of this day covered 350 miles in fourteen hours, 
all of the way through a country of remarkable and peculiar 
beauty which can be duplicated nowhere outside the mountainous, 
rice-growing Orient and there only during fifteen days closing the 
transplanting season. There were neither high mountains nor 
broad valleys, no great rivers and but few lakes; neither rugged 
naked rocks, tall forest trees nor wide level fields reaching away to 
unbroken horizons. But the low, rounded, soil-mantled mountain 
tops clothed in herbaceous and young forest growth fell every- 
where into lower hills and these into narrow steep valleys which 
dropped by a series of water-level benches, as seen in Fig. 195, 
to the main river courses. Each one of these millions of terraces, 
set about by its raised rim, was a silvery sheet of water dotted in 
the daintiest manner with bunches of rice just transplanted, not 
so close nor yet so high and over-spreading as to obscure the water, 
yet enough to impart to the surface a most delicate sheen of green. 
The grass-grown narrow rims retaining the water in the basins, 
cemented them into series of the most superb mosaics, shaped 
into the valley bottoms by artisan artists perhaps two thousand 
years before and maintained by their descendants through all 
the years since, that on them the rains and fertility from the 
mountains and the sunshine from heaven might be transformed by 
the rice plant into food for the families and support for the nation. 
Two weeks earlier the aspect of these landscapes was very differ- 
ent, and two weeks later the reflecting water would lie hidden 
beneath the growing and rapidly developing mantle of green, to 
go on changing until autumn, when all would be overspread with 
the ripened harvest of grain. What intensified the beauty of it all 
was the fact that only along the widest valley bottoms were the 
mosaics level, except the water surface of each individual unit, and 
these were always small. At one time we were riding along a 
descending series of steps and then along another rising through a 
winding valley to disappear around a projecting spur, and any- 



MILLIONS OF TERRACES 



339 




340 



KETURN TO JAPAN 



whore in the midst of it all might be standing Japanese cottages 
or villas with the water and the growing rice literally almost 
against the walls, as seen in Fig. 19G, while a nearby high terrace 
might hold its water on a level with the roofs. Can one wonder 
that tlie Japanese love thtir country or that they are born and 
bred landscape artists. 

Just before reaching Hongo there were considerable areas 
thrown into long narrow, much raised, east and west beds under 




Flo. 



up (if llllllS 



rounded 



liy uiUcr. 



covers of straw matting inclined at a slight angle toward the 
south, some 2 feet above the ground but open toward the north. 
What crop may have been grown Iutc we did not learn, })ut the 
matting was a])parently int(>nded for shade, as it was hot mid- 
summer weather, and we suspect it may have been ginseng. It 
was here, too, tluit we cji,me into the region of the culture of mat- 
ting rush, e,\t('iisiv(>ly grown in Hirosliiuia and Okayama pre- 
fectures, but less extensively all over the empire. As with rice, the 
rush is first grown in nursery beds from which it is transplanted 
to the paddies, one acre of nursery supplying sufficient stock for 
10 acres of field. The plants are set twenty to thirty stalks in a 
bill in rows 7 inches apart with the hills G inches from centre to 



MATTING RUSH 



341 



centre in the row. Very high fertilization is practised, costing 
from 120 to 240 yen per acre, or ^/('}0 to $120 annually, the ferti- 
lizer consisting of bean cake and plant ashes, or in recent years, 
sometimes of svdphate of ammonia for nitrogen, and siip<'rphos- 
phate of lime. About 10 ])er cent of the amount of fertilizer re- 
quired for the crop is applied at the tinui of fitting the ground, 
the balance being administered from time to time as the season 
advances. Two crops of the rush may be taken from the same 



^Hj^^MH^^ . ^i£&-^ill^ ^^^ 


*. . «» -a**, ..»^-» ■ '',,-*i.'fiHit'K3B5K»T'''*i;.v.-,.<v, . 





Fui. 197. -FiclilH of matting riisli witli ronontly trar)Kj)IaiitO(l rifo, arifl Oovcrn- 
rnont salt fiolds in tho background. 

ground each year or it is grown in rotation with rice, but most 
extensively on the lands less readily drained and not so well 
suited for other crops. Fields of the rush, growing in alternation 
with rice, are seen in Fig. 138, and in Fig. 197, with the Govern- 
ment salt fields lying along the seashore beyond. 

With the most vigorous growth the rush attain a height exceed- 
ing 3 feet and the market price varies materially with the length 
of the stems. Good yields, under the best culture, may be as high 
as 6-5 tons per acre of the dry stems but the average yield is less, 



342 



RETUKN TO JAPAN 



that of 1905 being 8,531 pounds, for 9,655 acres. The value of the 
product ranges from $120 to $200 per acre. 

It is from this material that mats are woven in standard sizes, 
to be laid over padding, upholstering the floors which are the 
seats of all classes in Japan, used in the manner seen in Fig. 
198. 




Fig. 198. - Group d .l:i|i.iiii si- .:irls |il;i\ mg the game of flower cards, in the usual 
atiitiule ul teUtiiig uii the matting-covered floor. 



'Two little maids I've heard of, each with a pretty taste, 
Who had two little rooms to fix and not an hour to waste. 
Eight thousand miles apart they lived, yet on the selfsame day 
The one in Nikko's narrow streets, the other on Broadway, 
They started out, each happy maid her heart's desire to find, 
And her own dear room to furnish just according to her mind. 

When Alice went a-shopping, she bought a bed of brass, 
A bureau and some chairs and things and such a lovely glass 
To reflect her little figure - with two candle brackets near - 
And a little dressing-table that she said was simply dear! 
A booksheK low to hold her books, a little china rack, 
And then, of course, a bureau set and lots of bric-a-brac; 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 343 

A dainty little escritoire, with fixings all her own; 

And just for her convenience, too, a little telephone. 

Some oriental rugs she got, and curtains of madras, 

With 'cunning' ones of lace inside, to go against the glass; 

And then a couch, a lovely one, with cushions soft to crush, 

And forty pillows, more or less, of linen, silk and plush; 

Of all the ornaments besides I couldn't tell the half, 

But wherever there was nothing else, she stuck a photograph. 

And then, when all was finished, she sighed a little sigh. 

And looked about with just a shade of sadness in her eye: 

"For it needs a statuette or so - a fern - a silver stork - 

Oh, something, just to fill it up!" said Alice of New York. 

When little Oumi of Japan went shopping, pit-a-pat, 

She bought a fan of paper and a little sleeping mat; 

She set beside the window a lily in a vase. 

And looked about with more than doubt upon her pretty face: 

"For, really - don't you think so? - with the lily and the fan, 

It's a little overcrowded!" said Oumi of Japan.' 

{Margaret Johnson in St. Nicholas Magazine.) 

In the rural homes of Japan during 1906 there were woven 
14,497,058 sheets of these floor mats and 6,628,772 sheets of other 
matting, having a combined value of $2,815,040, and in addition, 
from the best quality of rush grown upon the same ground, aggre- 
gating 7,657 acres that year, there were manufactured for the 
export trade, fancy mattings having the value of $2,274,131. 
Here is a total value, for the product of the soil and for the labour 
put into the manufacture, amounting to $664 per acre for the area 
named. 

At the Akashi agricultural experiment station, under the 
Directorship of Professor Ono, we saw some of the methods of 
fruit culture as practised in Japan. He was conducting experi- 
ments with the object of improving methods of heading and 
training pear trees, to which reference was made on page 32. A 
study was also being made of the advantages and disadvantages 
associated with covering the fruit with paper bags, examples of 
which are seen in Figs. 5 and 6. The bags were being made at the 
time of our visit, from old newspapers cut, folded and pasted by 



344 RETURN TO JAPAN 

women. Naked cultivation was practised in the orchard, and 
fertilizers consisting of fish guano and superphosphate of lime 
were being applied twice each year in amounts aggregating a cost 
of $24 per acre. 

Pear orchards of native varieties, in good bearing, yield returns 
of 150 yen per tan, and those of European varieties, 200 yen per 
tan, which is at the rate of $300 and $400 per acre. The bibo so 
extensively grown in China was being cultivated here also and was 
yielding about $320 per acre. 

It was here that we first met the cultivation of a variety of 
burdock grown from the seed, three crops being taken each season 
where the climate is favoiu:able, or as one of three in the multiple 
crop system. It is grown for the root, yielding a crop valued at $40 
to $50 per acre. One crop, planted in March, was being harvested 
July 1st. 

During our ride to Akashi on the early morning train we passed 
long processions of carts drawn by cattle, horses or by men, 
moving along the country road which paralleled the railway, all 
loaded with the waste of the city of Kobe, going to its destination 
in the fields, some of it a distance of 12 miles, where it was sold at 
from 54 cents to $1.63 per ton. 

At several places along our route from Shimonoseki to Osaka 
we had observed the application of slacked lime to the water of 
the rice fields, but in this prefecture, Hyogo, where the station is 
located, its use was prohibited in 1901, except under the direction 
of the station authorities, where the soil was acid or where it was 
needed on account of insect troubles. Up to this time it had been 
the custom of farmers to apply slacked lime at the rate of 3 to 5 
tons per acre, paying for it $4.84 per ton. The first restrictive 
legislation permitted the use of 82 pounds of lime with each 827 
pounds of organic manure, but as the farmers persisted in using 
much larger quantities, complete prohibition was resorted to. 

Reference has been made to subsidies encouraging the use of 
composts, and in this prefecture prizes are awarded for the best 
compost heaps in each county, examinations being made by a 
committee. The composts receiving the four highest awards in 
each county are allowed to compete with those in other counties 
for a prefectnral prize awarded by another committee. 

The 'pink clover' grown in Hyogo after rice, as a green manure 



OLD STUBBLE AS FERTILIZER 



315 



crop, yields under favourable conditions 20 tons of the green 
product per acre, and is usually applied to about three times the 
area upon which it grew, at the rate of 6-6 tons per acre, the 
stubble and roots serving for the ground upon which the crop 
grew. 

On July 3rd we left Osaka, going south through Sakai to Waka- 









Fig. 199. - Distribution of old .stubble and the working of it beneath the water 
and mud to serve as fertilizer. 



yama, thence east and north to the Kara Experiment Station. 
After passing the first two stations the route lay through a very 
flat, highly cultivated garden section with cucumbers trained on 
trellises, many squash in full bloom, with fields of taro, ginger 
and many other vegetables. Beyond Hamadera considerable 
areas of flat sandy land had been set close with pine, but with 
intervening areas in rice, where the growers were using the revolv- 
ing weeder seen in Fig. 12. At Otsu broad areas are in rice but 



316 



RETURN TO JAPAN 



here worked witli tlio short-handled claw woeders, and stubble 
from a former crop had been drawn together into small piles, seen 
in Fig. 199, which later woidd be carefully distributed and worked 
beneath the mud. 

Much of the mountain lands in this region, growing })ine. is 
owned by private parties and the growth is cut at intervals of 
ten, twentv or twentv-live vears, btMnij; sold on the iiround to 




Fiu. uoo 



(Umg with tlio Japaiioso ciroiiinforoiit ial foot -power water wheel, 
near Hnshiinoto. 



those who will come and cut it at a price of 10 sen for a one- 
horse load, as already describe^l (])age li'2). 

The course from here was up the rather rapidly rising Kiigawa 
valley where much water was being applied to thfe rice fields by 
various methods of pumping, among them numerous current 
wheels; an occasional power-pumj) driven by cattle; .and very 
commonly the foot-power wheel where the man walks on the 
circumference, steadying himself with a long pole, as seen in the 
field. Fig. 200. It was here that a considerable section of the hill 
slope had been very recently cut over, the area showing light in 



WILD BEAUTY 347 

the engraving. It was in tlie vieinity of IlaKhirnoto on this route, 
too, that the two beautiful views reproduced in Figs. 134 and 155 
were taken. 

At the experiment station it was learned that within the pre- 
fecture of Nara, having a jiopulation of 558,314, two-thirds 
of the 107,574 acres of cultivated land was in rice. Within the 
province there are also about one thousand irrigation reservoirs 
with an average depth of 8 feet. The rice fields receive 16-32 
inches of irrigation water in addition to the rain. 

Of the uncultivated hill lands, some 2,500 acres contribute 
green manure for fertilization of fields. Jleference has been made 
to the production of compost for fertilizers on page 180. The 
amount recommended in this prefecture as a yearly application 
for two crops grown is: 

Organic matter 3,711 to '1,6'10 lbs. per acre 

Nitrog(;n 105 to 131 lbs. per acre 

Phosj)lioru3 35 to 44 lbs. j)er acre 

Potassium 5G to 70 lbs. per acre 

These amounts, on the I)asis of th(! tabhs, page 189, are nearly 
sufficient for a crop of 30 bushels of wheat, followed by one of 30 
bushels of rice, the phosphorus being in excess and the potassium 
not quite enough, supposing non(! to be derived from other sources. 

At the Nara hotel, (nie of th(; beautiful Japanese inns where we 
stopped, our room opened upon a second story veranda from 
which one looked down upon a beautiful, tiny lakelet, some 20 by 
80 feet, within a diminutive park scarcely more than 100 by 200 
feet. The lakcdet had its grassy rocky banks overhung with trees 
and shrulis planted in all the wikl disorder and beauty of nature; 
bamboo, willow, fir, pine, cedar, red-leaved maple, catalpa, with 
other kinds, and through these, along the shore, wound a woodsy, 
well trodden, narrow footf)ath leading from the inn to a half- 
hidden cottage, apparently quarters for the maids, as they were 
frequently passing to and fro. A suggestion of how such wild 
beauty is brought right to the very doors in Japan may be gained 
from Fig. 201, which is an instance of parking effect on a still 
smaller scale than that described. 

On the morning of July Gth, with two men for each of our 
rickshas, we left the Yaami hotel for the Kyoto Experiment 



348 



RETURN TO JAPAN 



Station, some 2 miles to the south-west of the city limits. As soon 
as we had entered upon the country road we found ourselves in a 
procession of cart men each drawing a load of six large covered 
receptacles of about 10 gallons capacity, and iilled with the city's 
waste. Before reaching the station we had passed fifty-two of 
these loads. On our return the procession was still moving in the 
same direction and we passed sixty-one others, so that during at 
least five hours there had moved over this section of road leading 




Fig. 201. - I?OHUty at lioine in Japan. 

into the country, away from the city, not less than GO tons of 
waste. Along other roadways simihir loads were moving. These 
freight carts and those drawn by horses antl bullocks were all 
provided with long racks, and when the load is not sufhcient to 
cover the full length it is always divided equally and placed near 
each end, thus taking advantage of the elasticity of the body to 
give the elTect of springs, lessening the draught and the wear 
and tear. 

One of the most conunon commodities coming into the city 



HORSE BREEDING 3d9 

along the country roads was fuel from the hill lands, in split sticks 
tied in bundles; as bundles of limbs 24 to 30 inches, and sometimes 
4 to G feet, long; and in the form of charcoal made from trunks 
and stems li to (5 inches long, and baled in straw matting. 
Most of the draught animals used in Japan are either cows, bulls 
or stallions; at least we saw very few oxen and few geldings. 

As early as 1895 the Government began definite steps looking 
to the improvement of horse breeding, appointing at that time a 
commission to devise comprehensive plans. This led to progres- 
sive steps finally culminating in 1906 in the Horse Administration 
Bureau, whose duties were to extend over a period of thirty years, 
divided into two intervals, the first eighteen and the second twelve 
years. During the first interval it is contemplated that the Govern- 
ment will acquire 1,500 stallions to be distributed throughout the 
country for the use of private individuals, and during the second 
period it is the expectation that the system will have completely 
renovated the stock and familiarized the people with proper 
methods of management so that matters may be left in their hands. 

As our main purpose and limited time required undivided 
attention to agricultural matters, and of these to the long estab- 
lished practices of the people, we could give but little time to 
sight-seeing or even to a study of the efforts being made for the 
introduction of improved agricultural methods and practices. 
But in the very old city of Kyoto, which was the seat of the 
Mikado's court from before a.d. 800 until 1868, we did pay a 
short visit to the Kiyomizu temple, situated some 300 yards south 
from the Yaami hotel. It faces the Maruyaami park with its 
centuries-old giant cherry tree, having a trunk of more than 4 
feet through and wide-spreading branches, now much propped 
up to guard against accident. These cherry trees are very exten- 
sively used for ornamental purposes in Japan with striking effect. 
The tree does not produce an edible fruit, but is very beautiful 
when in full bloom, as may be seen from Fig. 202. It was these 
trees that were sent by the Japanese government to the United 
States for use at Washington, but the first lot were destroyed 
because they were found to be infested and threatened danger to 
native trees. 

Kyoto stands amid surroundings of wonderful beauty, the site 
apparently having been selected with rare acumen for its possi- 



350 



RETURN TO JAPAN 



bilities in large landscape effects, and these have been developed 
with that fullness and richness which the greatest artists might 
be content to approach. We are thinking particularly of the 
Kiyoniizu-dera, or rather of tlie marvellous luwuty of tree and 
foliage which has overgrown it and swept far up and over the 
mountain summit, leaving the temple half hidden at the base. 
No words, no brush, no photographic art can transfer the effect. 
One nuist see to feel the influence for which it was created, and 




Fio. 202. - Admiring cherry blossoms. 



scores of people, very old and very young, nearly all Japanese, 
and more of them on that day from the pot>rer ra,ther than from 
the well-to-do class, were there, all withdrawing reluctantlv, like 
ourselves, looking backward, under the spell, ►^o potent and im- 
pressive was that something from the great overshadowing beauty 
of the mountain, that all along up the narrow, shop-lined street 
leading to the gateway of the temple, the tiniest bits of park effect 
were flourishing in the most impossible situations; and as Professor 
Tokito and myself were coming away we chanced upon six little 



INDIGO 351 

roughly dressed lads laying out in the sand an elaborate little park, 
quite 9 by 12 feet. They must have been at it hours, for there were 
ponds, bridges, tiny hills and ravines and much planting in moss 
and other little greens. So intent on their task were they that we 
stood watching full two minutes before our presence attracted 
their attention, and yet the oldest of the group must have been 
under ten years of age. 

Within the temple, as the peasant men and women came before 
the shrine and grasped the long depending rope knocker, with 
the heavy knot in front of the great gong, swinging it to strike 
three rings, announcing their presence before their God, then' 
kneeling to offer prayers, one could not fail to realize the deep 
sincerity and faith expressed in face and manner, while they were 
oblivious to all else. No Christian was ever more devout and one 
may well doubt if any ever arose from prayer more uplifted than 
these. Who need believe they did not look beyond the imagery 
and commune with the Eternal Spirit? 

When returning to the city from the Kyoto Experiment Station 
several fields of Japanese indigo were passed, growing in water 
under the conditions of ordinary rice culture. Fig. 203 being a view 
of one of these. The plant is Poligonmn tindoria, a close relative 
of the smartweed. Before the importation of aniline and alizarin 
dyes, which amounted in 1907 to 160,558 pounds and 7,170,320 
pounds respectively, the cultivation of indigo was much more 
extensive than at present, amounting in 1897 to 160,460,000 
pounds of the dried leaves; but in 1906 the production had fallen 
to 58,696,000 pounds, 45 per cent of which was grown in the 
prefecture of Tolaishima in the eastern part of the island of 
Shikoku. The population of this prefecture is 707,565, or 4-4 
people to each of the 159,450 acres of cultivated field, and yet 
19,969 of these acres bore the indigo crop, leaving more than five 
people to each food-producing acre. 

The plants for this crop are started in nursery beds in February 
and transplanted in May, the first crop being cut the last of June 
or first of July, when the fields are again fertilized, the stubble 
throwing out new shoots and yielding a second cutting the last 
of August or early September. A crop of barley may have pre- 
ceded one of indigo, or the indigo may be set followin'g a crop of 
rice. Such practice, with the high fertilization for every crop, 



352 RETURN TO JAPAN 

goes a long way toward supplying the necessary food. The dense 
population, too, has permitted the manufacture of the indigo as a 
home industry among the farmers, enabling them to exchange the 
spare labour of the family for cash. The manufactured product 
from the reduced planting in 1907 was worth $1,304,610, 45 per 
cent of which was the output of the rural population of the pre- 
fecture of Tokushima, which they could exchange for rice and 
other necessaries. The land in rice in this prefecture in 1907 was 
73,816acres, yielding 1 14,380,000 pounds, or more than 161 pounds 




Fig. 203. - Field of Japanese indigo, just outside the city of Kyoto 



to each man, woman and child, and there were 65,665 acres bear- 
ing other crops. Besides this there are 874,208 acres of mountain 
and hill land in the prefecture which supply fuel, fuel ashes and 
green manure for fertilizer; run-oft" water for irrigation; lumber 
and remunerative employment for service not needed in the fields. 
The journey was continued from Kyoto July 7th, by the route 
leading north-eastward, skirting Lake Biwa which we came upon 
suddenly on emerging from a tunnel as tlje train left Otani. At 
many places we passed water-wheels, busily turning, and usually 
12 to 16 feet in diameter but oftenest only as many inches thick. 
Until we had reached Lake Biwa the valleys were narrow with 



ATKISOGAWA 353 

only small areas in rice. Tea plantations were common on the 
higher cultivated slopes, as well as gardens on the terraced hill- 
sides growing vegetables of many kinds. Often the ground was 
heavily mulched with straw, while the wooded or grass-covered 
slopes still further up showed the usual systematic periodic cut- 
ting. After passing the west end of the lake, rice fields were nearly 
continuous and extensive. Before reaching Hachiman we crossed 
a stream leading into the lake but confined between levees more 
th^ 12 feet high, and we had ab-eady passed beneath two raised 
viaducts after leaving Kusatsu. Other crops were being grown side 
by side with the rice on similar lands and apparently in rotation 
with it, but on sharp, narrow, close ridges 12 to 14 inches high. 
As we passed eastward we entered one of the important mulberry 
districts where the fields are graded to two levels, the higher occu- 
pied with mulberry or other crops not requiring irrigation, while 
the lower was devoted to rice or crops grown in rotation with it. 

On the Kisogawa, at the station of the same name, there were 
four anchored floating water-power mills propelled by two pair 
of large current wheels stationed fore and aft, each pair working 
on a common axle from opposite sides of the mill, driven by the 
force of the current. 

At Kisogawa we had entered the northern end of one of the 
largest plains of Japan, some 30 miles wide and extending 40 
miles southward to Owari bay. The plain has been extensively 
graded to two levels, the benches being usually not more than 2 
feet above the paddy fields, and devoted to various dry land crops, 
including the mulberry. The soil is decidedly sandy in character, 
but the mean yield of rice for the prefecture is 37 bushels per acre 
and above the average for the country at large. An analysis of 
the soils at the sub-experiment station north of Nagoya shows the 
following content of the three main plant food elements: 



Soil 
Subsoil 

Soil 
Subsoil 

F.F.C. 



trogen 


Phosphorus 


Potassium 




Pounds per million 




In paddy field 




,520 


769 


805 


810 


756 

In upland field 


888 


,060 


686 


1,162 


510 


673 


1,204 

M 



354 EETURN TO JAPAN 

The green manure crops on this plain are chiefly two varieties 
of the 'pink clover,' one sown in the fall and one about May 15th, 
the first yielding as high as 16 tons green weight per acre and the 
other from 5 to 8 tons. 

On the plain distant from the mountain and hill land the stems 
of agricultural crops are largely used as fuel and the fuel ashes 
are applied to the fields at the rate of 10 kan per tan, or 330 pounds 
per acre, worth $1.20, little lime, as such, being used. 

In the prefecture of Aichi, largely in this plain, with an area 
of cultivated land equal to about 16 of our government townships, 
there is a population of 1,752,042, or a density of 4-7 per acre, 
and the number of households of farmers was placed at 211,033, 
thus giving to each farmer's family an average of 1-75 acres, their 
chief industries being rice and silk culture. 

Soon after leaving the Agricultural Experiment Station of 
Aichi prefecture at An Jo we crossed the large Yahagigawa, 
flowing between strong levees above the level of the rice fields. 
Mulberries, with burdock and other vegetables, were growing 
upon all the tables raised one to two feefc above the rice fields, and 
these features continued past Okasaki, Koda and Kamagori, where 
the hills in many places had been recently cut clean of the low 
forest growth and where we passed many large stacks of pine 
boughs tied in bundles for fuel. After passing Goyu 65 miles east 
from Nagoya, mulberry was the chief crop. Then came a plain 
country which had been graded and levelled at great cost of 
labour, the benches with their square shoulders standing 3 to 4 
feet above the paddy fields; and after passing Toyohashi some 
distance we were surprised to cross a rather wide section of com- 
paratively level land overgrown with pine and herbaceous plants 
which had evidently been cut and recut many times. Beyond 
Futagawa rice fields were laid out on what appeared to be similar 
land but with soil a little finer in texture, and still further along 
were other flat areas not cultivated. 

At Maisaka quite half the cultivated fields appear to be in 
mulberry with ponds of lotus plants in low places, while at Hama- 
matsu the rice fields are interspersed with many square-shouldered 
tables raised 3 to 4 feet and occupied with mulberry or vegetables. 
As we passed upon the flood plain of the Tenryugawa, with its 
nearly dry bed of coarse gravel half a mile wide, the dwellings of 



HORTICULTURE 355 

farm villages were many of them surromided with nearly solid, 
flat- topped, trimmed evergreen hedges 9 to 12 feet high, of the 
imibrella pine, forming beautiful and effective screens. 

At Nakaidzumi we had left the mulberry orchards for those of 
tea, rice still holding wherever paddy fields could be formed. 
Here, too, we met the first fields of tobacco, and at Fukuroi and 
Homouchi large quantities of imported Manchurian bean cake 
were stacked about the station, having evidently been brought 
by rail. At Kanaya we passed through a long tunnel and were in 
the valley of the Oigawa, crossing the broad, nearly dry stream 
over a bridge of nineteen long spans and were then in jbhe pre- 
fecture of Shizuoka where large fields of tea spread far up the 
hillsides, covering extensive areas, but after passing the next 
station, and for 17 miles before reaching Shizuoka, we traversed 
a level stretch of nearly continuous rice fields. 

The Shizuoka Experiment Station is devoting special attention 
to the interests of horticulture, and progress has already been 
made in introducing new fruits of better quality and in improving 
the native varieties. The native pears and peaches, as we found 
them served on the hotel tables in either China or Japan, were 
not particularly attractive in either texture or flavour, but we 
were here permitted to test samples of three varieties of ripe figs of 
fine flavour and texture, one of them as large as a good-sized 
pear. Three varieties of fine peaches were also shown, one unusu- 
ally large and with delicate deep rose tint, including the flesh. If 
such peaches could be canned so as to retain their delicate colour 
they would prove very attractive for the table. The flavour and 
texture of this peach were also excellent, as was the case with 
two varieties of pears. 

The station was also experimenting with the production of 
marmalades and we tasted three very excellent brands, two of 
them lacking the bitter flavour. It would appear that in Japan, 
Korea and China there should be a very bright future along the 
lines of horticultural development, leading to the utilization of the 
extensive hill lands of these countries and the development of a 
very extensive export trade, both in fresh fruits and marmalades, 
preserves and the canned forms. They have favourable climatic 
and soil conditions and great numbers of people with tempera- 
ment and habits well suited to the industries, as well as an enor- 



356 RETURN TO JAPAN 

mous home need which should be met, in addition to the large 
possibilities in the direction of a most profitable export trade 
which would increase opportunities for labour and bring needed 
revenue to the people. In Fig. 204 are three views at this station, 
the lower showing a steep terraced hillside set with oranges and 
other frmts, holding out a bright promise for the future. 

Peach orchards w^ere here set on the hill lands, the trees 6 feet 
apart each way. They come into bearing in three years, remain 
productive ten to fifteen years, and the returns are 50 to 60 
yen per tan, or at the rate of $100 to $120 per acre. The usual 
fertilizers for a peach orchard are the manure-earth-compost, 
applied at the rate of 3,300 pomids per acre, and fish guano 
applied in rotation and at the same rate. 

Shizuoka is one of the large prefectures, having a total area of 
3,029 square miles; 2,090 of which are in forest, 438 in pasture 
and (jcnya land, and 501 square miles cultivated, not quite one- 
half of which is in paddy fields. The mean yield of rice is nearly 
33 bushels per acre. The prefecture has a population of 1,293,470, 
or about four to the acre of cultivated field, and the total crop of 
rice is such as to provide 236 pounds to each person. 

At many places along the way as we left Shizuoka July 10th 
for Tokyo, farmers were sowing broadcast, on the water, over 
their rice fields, some pulverized fertilizer, possibly bean cake. 
Near the railway station of Fuji, and after crossing the boulder 
gravel bed of the Fujikawa which was a full quarter of a mile 
wide, we were traversing a broad plain of paddy fields with then- 
raised tables, but on them pear orchards were growing, trained 
to their overhead trellises. About Suduzuka grass was being cut 
with sickles along the canal dikes for use as green manure in the 
rice fields, which stretched eastward more than 6 miles to beyond 
Hara. Here we passed into a tract of dry land crops consisting of 
mulberry, tea and various vegetables, with more or less of dry 
land rice, but we returned to the paddy land again at Numazu, in 
another 4 miles. 

It was at this station that the railway turns northward to skirt 
the eastern flank of the beautiful Fuji-yama, rising to higher 
lands of a brown loamy character, showing many large boulders 
2 feet in diameter. Horses were here moving along the roadways 
under large saddle loads of green grass, going to the paddy fields 



SHIZUOKA EXPERIMENT STATION 357 






Fig. 204. - Views of buildiuga and grounds at the Shizuoka ExpLi m -i aiion. 



358 KETURN TO JAPAN 

from the hills, which in this section are quite free from all but 
herbaceous growth, well covered and green. Considerable areas 
were growing maize and buckwheat, the latter being ground into 
flour and made into macaroni which is eaten with chopsticks, and 
used to give variety to the diet of rice and naked barley. At 
Gotenba, where tourists leave the train to ascend Fuji-yama, the 
road turns eastward again and descends rapidly through many 
tunnels, crossing the wide gravelly channel of the Sakawagawa. 
The river was then carrying but little water, like all the other main 
streams we had crossed, although we were in the rainy season. 
This was partly because the season was yet not far advanced; 
partly because so much water was being taken upon the rice 
fields, and again because the drainage is so rapid down the steep 
slopes and comparatively short water courses. Beyond Yamakita 
the railway again led along a broad plain set in rice and the hill 
slopes were terraced and cultivated nearly to their summits. 

Swinging strongly south-eastward, the coast was reached at 
Noduz in a hilly country producing chiefly vegetables, mulberry 
and tobacco, the latter crop being extensively grown eastward 
nearly to Oiso, beyond which, after a mile of sweet potatoes, 
squash and cucumbers, there were paddy fields of rice in a flat 
plain. Before Hiratsuka was reached the paddy fields were left 
and the train was crossing a comparatively flat country with a 
sandy, sometimes gravelly, soil where mulberries, peaches, egg- 
plants, sweet potatoes and dry land rice were interspersed with 
areas still occupied with small pine and herbaceous growth, or 
where small pine had been recently set. Similar conditions pre- 
vailed after we had crossed the broad channel of the Banyugawa 
and well toward and beyond Fujishiwa where a levelled plain 
has its tables scattered among the fields of paddy rice. This is the 
south-west margin of the Tokyo plain, the largest in Japan, lying in 
five prefectures, whose aggregate area of 1,739,200 acres of arable 
lands was worked by 657,235 families of farmers; 661,613 acres of 
which was in paddy rice, producing annually some 19,198,000 
bushels, or 161 pounds for each of the 7,194,045 men, women and 
children in the five prefectures, 1,818,655 of whom were in the 
capital city, Tokyo. 

Three views taken in the eastern portion of this plain in the 
prefecture of Chiba, July 17th, are seen in Fig. 205, in two of which 



TOKYO PLAIN 



359 




Fio. 205. - Three landscapes in the Tokyo plain, the upper two largely in sweet 
potatoes, following wheat, the lower in peanuts. 



360 EETURN TO JAPAN 

shocks of wheat were still standing among the growing crops, 
badly weathered and the grain sprouting as the result of the rainy 
season. Peanuts, sweet potatoes and millet were the main dry 
land crops then on the ground, with paddy rice in the flooded 
basins. Windsor beans, rape, wheat and barley had been har- 
vested. One family with whom we talked were threshing their 
wheat. The crop had been a good one and was yiekling between 
38-5 and 41-3 bushels per acre, worth at the time $35 to $40. On 
the same land this farmer secures a yield of 352 to 361 bushels of 
potatoes, which at the market price at that time would give a gross 
earning of $64 to $66 per acre. 

Reference has been made to the extensive use of straw in the 
cultural methods of the Japanese. This is notably the case in their 
truck garden work, and two phases of this are shown in Fig. 206. 
In the lower section of the illustration the garden has been ridged 
and furrowed for transplanting, the sets have been laid and the 
roots covered with a little soil; then, in the middle section, showing 
the next step in the method, a layer of straw has been pressed 
firmly above the roots, and in the final step this would be covered 
with earth. Adopting this method the straw is so placed that (I) 
it acts as an effective mulch without in any way interfering with 
the capillary rise of water to the roots of the sets; (2) it gives deep, 
thorough aeration of the soil, at the same time allowing rains to 
penetrate quickly, drawing the air after it; (3) the ash ingredients 
carried in the straw are leached directly to the roots where they 
are needed; (4) and finally the straw and soil constitute a compost 
where the rapid decay liberates plant food gradually and in the 
place where it will be most readily available. The upper section 
of the illustration shows rows of egg-plants very heavily mulched 
with coarse straw, the quantity being sufficient to act as a 
most effective mulch, to largely prevent the development of 
weeds and to serve during the rainy season as a very material 
fertilizer. 

In growing such dry land crops as barley, beans, buckwheat or 
dry land rice the soil of the field is at first fitted by ploughing or 
spading, then furrowed deeply where the rows are to be planted. 
Into these furrows fertilizer is placed and covered with a layer of 
earth upon which the seed is planted. When the crop is up, if a 
second fertilization is desired, a furrow may be made alongside 



STRAW AS MULCH AND FERTILIZER 361 




FlQ. 20G. - Two inotliods of ulili/iu- .,,.ii>,c strau luul litter for imilchiiig and 
I'ortiliziiig at tlio saiiio time. 



3G2 RETURN TO JAPAN 

each row, into which the fertilizer is sowed and then covered. 
When the crop is so far matted that a second may be planted, 
a new furrow is made, either midway between two others or 
adjacent to one of them, fertilizer applied and covered with a layer 
of soil and the seed planted. In this way the least time possible 
is lost during the growing season, all the soil of the field doing duty 
in crop product ioji. 

It was our privilege to visit the Imperial Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station at Nishigahara, near Tokyo, which is charged with 
the leadership of the general and technical agricultural research 
work for the Empire. The w^ork is divided into the sections of 
agriculture, agricultural chemistry, entomology, vegetable patho- 
logy, tobacco, horticulture, stock breeding, soils, and tea manu- 
facture, each with their laboratory equipment and research staft", 
while the forty-one prefectural stations and fourteen sub-stations 
are charged with the duty of handling all specific local, practical 
problems and with testing out and applying conclusions and 
methods suggested by the results obtained at the central station, 
together with the local dissemination of knowledge among the 
farmers of the respective prefectiures. 

A comprehensive soil survey of the arable lands of the Empire 
has been in progress since before 1893, excellent maps being issued 
on a scale of 1 to KXXOOO. or about 1-57 in. to the mile, showing 
the geological formations in eight colours with subdivisions indi- 
cated by letters. Some eleven soil types are recognized, based on 
physical composition, and the areas occupied by these are shown 
by means of lines and dots in black printed over the colours. 
Typical profiles of the soil to depths of three metres are printed as 
insets on each sheet and localities where these apply are indicated 
by corresponding numbers in red on the map. 

Elaborate chemical and physical studies are also being made in 
the laboratories of samples of both soil and subsoil.' The Imperial 
Agricultural Experiment Station is well equipped for investigation 
work along many lines and that for soils is notably strong. In 
Fig. 207 may be seen a portion of the large immersed cyhnders 
which are filled with typical soils from diflerent parts of the 
Empire, and Fig. 208 shows a portion of another part of their 
elaborate outfit for soil studies which are in progress. 

It is found that nearly all cultivated soils of Japan are acid to 



SOIL STUDY FIELD 



363 



litmus, and this they are inclined to attribute to the presence of 
acid hydro-aluminum silicates. 

The Island Empire of Japan stretches along the Asiatic coast 
through more than 29^ of latitude from the southern extremity 
of Formosa northward to the middle of Saghalin, some 2,300 
statute miles; or from the latitude of middle Cuba to that of 
north Newfoundland and Winnipeg; but the total land area is 
only 175,428 square miles, and less than that of the three states 




Fig. 207. - Section of soil study 



-J nul Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Tokyo. 



of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Of this total land area only 
23,698 square miles are at present cultivated; 7,151 square miles 
in the three main islands are weed and pasture land. Less than 
14 per cent of the entire land area is at present under cultivation. 

If all lands having a slope of less than 15° may be tilled, 
there yet remain in the four main islands, 15,400 square miles 
to bring under cultivation, which is an addition of 65-4 per cent 
to the land already cultivated. 

In 1907 there were in the Empire some 5,814,362 households 



364 



RETURN TO JAPAN 




POSSIBLE RECLAMATION 365 

of farmers tilling 15,201,909 acres and feeding 3,522,877 additional 
households, or 51,742,398 people. This is an average of 34 people 
to the acre of cultivated land, each farmer's household tilling an 
average of 2-6 acres. 

The lands yet to be reclaimed are being put under cultivation 
ra])idly, the amount improved in 1907 being 64,448 acres. If the 
new lands to be reclaimed can be made as productive as those now 
in use there should be opportunity for an increase in population 
to the exttnt of about 35,000,000 without changing the present 
ratio of 3-4 people to the acre of cultivated land. 

While the remaining lands to be reclaimed are not as inherently 
productive as those now in use, improvements in management 
will more than compensate for this, and the Empire is certain to 
double its present maintenance capacity and provide for at least 
100 million people with many more comforts of home and more 
satisfaction for the common people than they now enjoy. 

Since 1872 there has been an increase in the population of 
Japan amounting to an annual average of about 1-1 per cent, and 
if this rate is maintained the 100 million mark would be passed in 
less than sixty years. It appears probable, however, that the in- 
creased acreage put under cultivation and pasturage combined, 
will more than keep pace with the population up to this limit, 
while the improvement in methods and crops will readily permit a 
second like increment to her population, bringing that for the 
present Empire up to 150 millions. Against this view, perhaps, is 
the fact that the rice crop of the twenty years ending in 1906 is 
only 33 per cent greater than the crop of 1838. 

In Japan, as in the United States, there has been a strong move- 
ment from the country to the city as a natural result of the large 
increase in manufactures and commerce, and the small amount of 
land per each farmer's household. In 1903 only -23 per cent of the 
population of Japan were living in villages of less than 500, while 
79-06 per cent were in towns and villages of less than 10,000 
people, 20-7 per cent living in those larger. But in 1894 84-36 per 
cent of the population were living in towns and villages of less 
than 10,000, and only 15-64 per cent were in cities, towns and 
villages of over 10,000 people; and while during these ten years 
the rural population had increased at the rate of 640 per 10,000, in 
cities the increase had been 6,174 per 10,000. 



366 RETURN TO JAPAN 

Japan has been and still is essentially an agricultural nation 
and in 1906 there were 3,872.105 farmers' househohls, whose 
chief work was farming, and 1,581,20-1 others whose subsidiary 
work was farming, or 60-2 per cent of the entu'e number of house- 
holds. A like ratio holds in Formosa. Wealthy landowners who 
do not till their own fields are not included. 

Of the farmers in Japan some 3-331 per cent own and work their 
land. Those ha\dng smaller holdings, who rent additional land, 
make up 4GG3 per cent of the total farmers; while 20-63 per cent 
are tenants who work 44-1 per cent of the land. In 1892 only 1 
per cent of the land holders owned more than 25 acres each; 
those holding between 25 acres and 5 acres made up 11-7 per cent; 
while 87-3 per cent held less than 5 acres each. A man owning 75 
acres of land in Japan is counted among the 'great land-holders.' 
It is never true, however, except in the Hokkaido, which is a new 
country agriculturally, that such holdings lie in one body. 

Statistics published in Agriculture in Ja-pan, by the Agricultural 
Bureau, Department of Agriculture and Commerce, permit the 
following statements of rent, crop returns, taxes and expenses to be 
made. The wealthy landowners who rent their lands receive 
returns like these; 

For paddy field, For upland field, 
per acre. per acre. 

Rent $27.98 $13.53 

Taxes 7.34 1.98 

Expenses 1.72 2.48 



Total expenses $9.06 $4.46 

Net profit 18.92 9.07 

It is stated, in connection with these statistics, < that the rate 
of profit for land capital is 5-6 per cent for the paddy field, and 5-7 
per cent for the upland field. This makes the valuation of the 
land about $338 and $159 per acre, respectively. A land holder 
who owns and rents 10 acres of paddy field and 10 acres of upland 
field would, at these rates, realize a net annual income of $279.90. 

Peasant farmers who own and work their lands receive per acre 
an income as follows: 



TAXES AND EXPENSES 367 

For paddy field. For upland field, 
per acre. per acre. 

Crop returns $55.00 $.30.72 

Taxes 7.34 1.98 

Labour and expenses 36.20 24.00 



Total expenses $43.54 $25.98 

Net profit 11.46 4.74 

The peasant farmer who owns and works 5 acres, 2-5 of paddy 
and 2-5 of upland field, would realize a total net income of $40.50. 
This is after deducting the price of his labour. With that included, 
his income would be something like $91. 

Tenant farmers who work some 41 per cent of the farm lands of 
Japan would have accounts something as follows: 





For paddy field, 


For upland field. 




1 crop. 


2 crops. 






per 


acre. 


per acre. 


Crop returns 


S49.03 


$78.62 


$41.36 


Tenant fee 


23.89 


31.58 


13.52 


Labour 


15.78 


25.79 


14.69 


Fertilization 


7.82 


17.30 


10.22 


Seed 


.82 


1.40 


1.57 


Other expenses 


1.69 


2.82 


1.66 


Total expenses 


$50.00 


$78.89 


$41.66 


Net profit 


—.97 


—.27 


—.30 



This statement indicates that tenant farmers do not realize 
enough from the crops to quite cover expenses and the price named 
for their labour. If the tenant were renting 5 acres, equally divided 
between paddy and upland field, the earning would be $7,300 or 
$99.73 according as one or two crops are taken from the paddy 
field. This represents what he realizes on his labour, his other 
expenses absorbing the balance of the crop value. 

But the average area tilled by each Japanese farmer's household 
is only 2.6 acres, hence the average earning of the tenant house- 
hold would be $37.95 or $51.86. A clearer view of the difference 
in the present condition of farmers in Japan and of those in the 



368 RETURN TO JAPAN 

United States may be gained by making the Japanese statement 
on the basis of our 160 acre farm, as expressed in the table below; 

For paddy field. For upland field. Total 
For 80 acres. For 80 acres. 160 acres. 
Crop returns $f, 400.00 $2,457.00 $6,857.60 



Taxes $587.20 $158.40 $745.60 

Expenses 1,633,60 744 80 2,378.40 

Labour 1,262.40 1,175.20 2,437.60 



Total cost $3,488.20 $2,078.40 $5,561.60 

Net return 916.80 379 20 1,296.00 

Return including lalxmr 2,179.20 1,554.40 3,733.60 

In the United States the 160-acre farm is managed by and 
supports a single family, but in Japan, as the average household 
works but 2.6 acres, the earnings of the 160 acres are distributed 
among some 61 households, making the net return to each but 
$21.25, instead of $1,296, and including the labour as earning, the 
income would be $39.96 more, or $60.67 per household instead of 
$3,733.60, the total for a IGO-acre farm worked under Japanese 
conditions. 

These figures reveal something of the tense strain and of the 
terrible burden which is being carried by these people, over and 
above that required for the maintenance of the household. The 
tenant who raises one crop of rice pays a rental of $23.89 per acre. 
If he raises two crops he pays $31.58; if it is upland field, he pays 
$13.52. To these amounts he adds $10.33, $21.52 or $13.45 
respectively for fertilizer, seed and other expenses, making a 
tutal investment of $34.22, $53.10 or $26 97 per acre, which would 
require as many bushels of wheat sold at a dollar a bushel to cover 
this cost. In addition to this he assumes all the risks of loss from 
weather, from insects and from blight, in the hope that he may 
recoup his expenses and in addition have for his services $14.81, 
$25 52 or $14.39 for the season's work. 

The burdens of society, which have been and still are so largely 
burdens of war and of government, with all nations, are reflected 
with almost blinding effect in the land taxes of Japan, which 
range from $1.98 on the upland, to $7.34 per acre on the paddy 



HEAVY BURDENS 



369 



fields, making a quarter section, without buildings, carry a bur- 
den of S300 to $1,100 annually. Japan's budget in 1907 was 
§134,941,113, which is at the rate of $2.60 for each man, woman 
and child; $8.90 for each acre of cultivated land, and $23 for 
each household in the Empire. When such is the case it is not 
strange that scenes like Fig. 209 are common in Japan to-day 
where, after seventy years, toil may not cease. 




Fio. 209. - Alter seventy years, toil may not cease. 



There is a bright, as well as a pathetic side to scenes like this. 
The two have shared for fifty years, but if the days have been 
full of toil, with them have come strength of body, of mind and 
sterling character. If the burdens have been heavy, each has 
made the other's lighter, the satisfaction fuller, the joys keener, 
the sorrows less difficult to bear; and the children who came into 
the home and have gone from it to perpetuate new ones, could not 
well be other than such as to contribute to the foundations of 
nations of great strength and long endurance. 



370 RETURN TO JAPAN 

Reference has been made to the large amount of work carried 
on in the farmers' households by the women and children, and 
by the men when they are not otherwise employed. The earnings 
of this subsidiary work have materially helped to piece out the 
meagre income and to meet the relatively high taxes and rent. 



INDEX 



Acidity of soils, 362-3. 

Acres per capita, U.S., 1.5 ; Orient 

15-6, 171, 356, .365. 
Afforestation, 134, 139, 142, 346 ; 

tract, 191-5. 
Agricultural college, 333. 
Aichi, .354. 
Akashi Experimental Station, 343, 

344. 
Amur river, 309. 

Analysis, ashes, 183 ; compost, 186 ; 
excreta, 171 ; genya, 184 ; milk, 
133 ; soil, 354. 
Angle-worms, 181. 
Animal diet, 122. 
Antung, 309, 319. 

Area, cultivated land, 17, 366 ; per 
family, 366, 369 ; of rice paddies 
243 ; of gardens, 329. 
Area, Aichi, 354 ; Japan, 366 ; 
Nara, 347 ; Shantung, 191 ; 
Shizuoka, 356 ; Tokushima, 351 ; 
Tokyo plain, 358. 
Area, forests, 142 ; genya, 186 ; 
legumes, 188 ; rice fields, 20, 37' 
238, 239; tea, 280; textiles, 
145 ; wheat, 238 ; rush, 342. 
Ashes, 22, 67, 163, 184, 185, 262 

344. 
Ashes as fertilizer, 142, 151 179 
221, 251, 262, .332, 3.33,' 352' 
360. 
Astragalus sinicus, 23, 332. 

B 

Bags, of malting, 146, 269, 270> 

319 ; paper, 324, 343. 
Bamboo, 49, 52, 116, 119, 124, 130 

140, 147, 166, 2.55, 293, 336, 337 • 

sprouts, 118-9, 157. 
Bananas, 81. 
Barley, 19, 53, 200, 214, 235, 239 

271, 315, 332, 351, 358, 360. 



Beans, 17, 110, 149, 188, 189, 200, 
254, 315, 316, .321, 3.3.3, 360; 
sprouted, 119. 
Bean cakes, 225, 332, .341, 356 ; 

export, 314, 315, .356. 
Bean curd, 128, 315. 
Beauty of landscapes, 119, 338-40, 

349-50. 
Beds, chimney, 126, 127. 
Beggars, 59. 
Bellows, 130. 
Bending wood, 86. 
Bibo, 344. 
Birds, 64. 

Blumann, Dr. John, 92. 
Boats, 78, 84, 86, 171. 
Bombyx mnri, 282. 
Borrowing money, 136. 
Bound feet, 203. 
Dow, for whipping cotton, 113. 
Bow- brace, 84. 
Boxer uprising, 191, 192. 
Braid, straw, 146, 200. 
Braziers, 124. 
Brick, 127, 144, 145. 
Brick vaults, 54. 
Bridge building, 200. 
Bucket and well sweep, 200. 
Buckwheat, 316, .3.58, .360. 
Buffalo, water, 132, 133, 1.34 208 

296. 
Buffalo-horn, nut, 119. 
Building materials, 142-5, 205, 250, 

296, 343. 
Bullocks, 348. 
Burdock, 344, 354. 
Bureau of Agriculture, Japan, 41, 

366. 
Burial, 59, 1.35. 
Butter, 133. 



Cabbage, 115, 116, 170, 239, 302. 
Cakes, oil, 128-32, 168, 170, 225 
314, 315, 331, 341. 



371 



372 



INDEX 



Calf, buffalo, 133. 

Calico printing, 110, 111. 

Caltropes, 119. 

Camphor trees, 65. 

Canal, Grand, 95, 96, 98, 100. 

Canals, 93, 95 &., 99, 102, 305 ; 
miles, 21, 95, 97. 

Canalization, 93 ff., 101, 298 ; sug- 
gested, 241, 246. 

Canal mud, 22, 74, 78, 99, 149-70, 
279 ; compost, 16.3-8. 

Candleberry trees, 93, 331. 

Canton, 19, 63, 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 
93, 174, 295 

Canton Christian College, 55, 73, 75. 

Carpenter, 171. 

Carrying pole, 52, 62, 66, 83, 151, 
"175, 176. 

Cart, 300, 301. 

Cash, 76, 77. 

Caskets, 56, 283. 

Cattle, 55, 121, 206, 313-4, 344; 
per acre, 16 ; per mile, 16, 17. 

Catty, 76, 133, 149-224. 

Cemeteries, 34, 59. 

Chafif as fertilizer, 260. 

Charcoal, 123-5, 141, 349. 

Chart, Nara Exp't Station, 186. 

Chefoo, 262. 

Chekiang, 95, 103, 109, 126, 249, 
265, 275, 276, 279. 

Chengtu, 97. 

Cherry trees, 349, 350. 

Chestnut, water, 119. 

Chickens, 117 ; per mile, 16, 160. 

Chihli, 57, 140, 143, 262, 300, 302. 

Children, 75, 291, 303, 351. 

Chimney beds, 126-7, 218. 

Chungming Island, 17, 62, 99. 

Chu Wei Yung, Mr., 198. 

Clay, 143. 

Clover, 23, 116, 118, 162-6, 258, 279, 
332, 344, 354. 

Coal, 124, 141, 196. 

Cocoons, 273, 275, 282, 283. 

Coins, 76. 

Cold storage, 77, 87, 303. 



College, 72, 73, 333. 

Compost, 12, 23, 105, 161-70, 184- 

6, 204, 216-7, 219-21, 235-6, 258, 

298, 331, 356 ; pits, 161-4, 221 ; 

stacks, 161-70, 223-4, 235-6, 331, 

333, 344, 356. 
Compost house, 186-7, 219. 
Composting, 221-2, 230, 254. 
Confucius, 191. 
Conservation suggested, 217. 
Cordwood, 141, 307. 
Cotton, 19, 63, 112, 231-3, 299; 

beating, 110-11. 
Cottonseed oil, 128-31 ; cake, 128- 

32. 
Cows, 133, 168, 250, 252, 301, 349. 
Crops, 200, 302-3, 315, 316, 320, 

329, 332, 333, 344 ; number per 

year, 19, 37, 241, .302, 329. 
Crowding, 67, 302, 303. 
Crowding of gardens, 67. 
Cucumbers, 45, 179, 233, 345, 358. 
Cultivated land, Nara, 347 ; Toku- 

shima, 351. 
Cultivation, 199, 311, 320. 
Cultivators, 40, 258, 344. 
Current wheel, 263, 264, 346. 



D 



Daikuhara, Dr., 185. 

Dairv, 132, 133. 

Dalny, 314. 

Dandola, 274. 

Delta, Hwang ho, 97 ; Sikiang, 83, 

84 ; Yangtse, 53, 63, 93, 96. 
Density of population, 15, 53, 196, 

199,^206. 
Dikes, 81, 82, 98, 102', 245, 353. 
Dipper, 166. 
Donkeys, 111, 204, 205, 217, 301, 

311 ; per mile, 17, 199, 206. 
Drainage, 99, 250, 298, 299, 360. 
Drains, 49, 52, 257. 
Dredge, 78, 166. 
Dredging, 77, 78, 166. 
Dress, 74, 75, 123, 125, 313, 320. 



INDEX 



373 



Drill, 79 ; seed, 218. 
Drought, 203, 204, 206, 314. 
Dry land rice, 240, 241, 358. 
Ducks, 81, 181. 
Dyeing, 112. 
Dyes, 351. 

E 

Earnings, 119, 1.37, 179, 214, 269, 

270, 271, 272, 279, 302, 303, 329, 
358, 366, 367-9. 

Economy, 76, 125, 147, 199; of 

diet, 119. 
Egg-plants, 247, 360. 
Eggs, 161. 

Elizabeth Blake Hospital, 110, 134. 
Erosion, 102, 103, 125, 135, 137, 

192, 197. 
Evans, Rev. A. E., 135, 137, 223, 

392, 393. 
Excreta, human, 171-6, 227. 
Experiment Stations, Japan, 185-8, 

271, 276, 329, 331, 332, 333-5, 
343, 355, 362. 

Export, beans, 207, 315 ; grain, 
313,314; silk, 272, 282 ; tea, 25, 
286. 

F 

Fanning mills, 266. 

Fanning rice, 266, 268. 

Farm industries, 146, 270, 368. 

Farmer in winter dress, 47, 125. 

Farmers' families, 146, 358, 363, 
365. 

Farms, 92, 206, 367, 368. 

Fences, 137, 204. 

Fertilizers, commercial, 15, 261 
262, 330, 341, 344, 356. 

Fertilizers, 72, 74, 92, 121-2, 143, 
149-55, 166-8, 171-5, 202, 251 [ 
288, 298, 302, 329, 331, 332, 344 ; 
canal mud, 22, 74, 78, 99, 149, 
153 ; bean cake, 225, 332, 34 1', 
356 ; removed by crops, 189, 190, 
221, 224. 



Fertilization, 15, 75, 79, 99, 101, 
149-68, 179, 183-90, 221-3, 225, 
279, 329, 354, 356; compost. 
161-70, 184, 186, 216, 217, 235, 
236, 331, 356 ; with legumes, 20, 
21, 99, 149-55, 223, 224, 234, 262, 
330, 331, 344, 354; for fish 
ponds, 92. 

Figs, 355. 

Fireless cooker, 77. 

Fireworks, 221. 

Fish, 77, 93 ; culture, 92, 188 ; 
guano, 256, 344. 

Floods, 96, 98-100, 191, 299. 

Floors, 223. 

Floral statuary, 67. 

Flower stands, 350. 

Food, 77, 110, 114-22, 155, 283, 331, 
358. 

Food transformers, 16, 17, 121. 

Foot-power, 78, 260, 262, 346. 

Forest area, 142, 356 ; return, 192- 
5; growth, 134, 142, 319, 324; 
scanty, 27 ; cutting, 134, 142, 
331 ; planting, 139. 

Foresters, 134, 142. 

Forest garden, 192, 195. 

Fork, 86. 

Formosa, 19, 241, 363. 

Fowls per mile, 16. 

Fruits, 303, 355. 

Fuel, 56, 84, 133-48, 182, 324, 330, 
337, 349, 352, 354 ; amount, 182. 

F\ikuoka Experiment Station, 330, 
331, 332, .333. 

Furnishing, 342, 343. 

G 

Gardeners, 329, 348. 
Gardens, 49, 67, 69, .302, 345. 
Gas, natural, 124, 296. 
Geese, 73, 81. 
Genge, 332. 

Genya, 184, 185, 186, 356. 
German works, 191, 209, 225. 
Ginger, 8, 119. 



374 



INDEX 



Ginseng, 340. 

Goats, 16, 55, 311, 313. 

Go-downs, 76, 87. 

Grading, 103, 104, 246, 282, 293, 

353, 354, 355. 
Grand Canal, 96, 97, 100, 101 ; 

suggested, 239-40. 
Grapes, 303. 
Grass, 139-40, 358 ; from canals, 

260, 261. 
Grave lands, 53-9. 
Graves, 53-4, 204, 297, 305, 313 ; 

in Japan, 22 ; in China, 53, 54, 

73. 
Grazing, 55, 72, 204, 298, 311, 313. 
Green manure, 56, 184, 185, 186, 

241, 251, 253, 260, 271, 321-3, 

344, 345, 354, 356, 357. 
Greens, 184, 233. 
Grinding, 79, 111, 128. 
Guilds, 110. 
Gutzlaff Island, 63. 

H 

Haas, Mr., 192. 

Haden, Rev. R. A., 134, 135. 

Hakone village, 37. 

Hall, A. D., 171. 

Hangchow, 53, 95, 96. 

HankoAv, 63, 96, 173. 

Hanyang, 63. 

Happy Valley, 64, 66, 69. 

Harrison, Capt., 27. 

Harrow, 254, 255. 

Harvesting, 299, 300. 

Hats, 320, 372. 

Hay, 298, 313. 

Hedges, 302, .306, 355. 

Hemp, 326. 

Hill lands, 55, 135, 137-40, 192-5, 

265, 3.37, 346, 349, 355, 358; 

area, 347, 351 ; for tea, 287. 
Hills, herbage, 49, 55, 83, 184, 185, 

192-5, 265, 330, 331, 337. 
Hoe, 214, 299. 
Hoeing grain, 214, 299, 305, 311, 

313. 



Hokkaido, 188, 238, 366. 

Holiday, 320. 

Holland, density of population, 16. 

Home, 124, 218, 219, 258. 

Home industries, 147, 270, 343, 352. 

Honam Island, 55, 73, 74. 

Hongkong, 64, 72. 

Honshu, 335. 

Hopkins, Dr. C. G., 121, 189, 315. 

Horses, 327, 349; per mile, 17; 

breeding, 349. 
Horticulture, 355. 
Hosie, Alexander, 124, 209, 275, 

282, 295, 296, 316. 
House building. 142-6. 
Houseboat, 93, 134-7, 155. 
Households, number, 147, 358. 
Hudson, Rev. W. H., 132. 
Human waste, 22, 25, 171-6, 223, 

260-2, 344. 
Hwang, 93, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102. 
Hygiene, 175, 284. 
Hyogo, 270-2, 344. 



Ichang, 96. 

Imperial Agr. Experiment Station, 

362, 366. 
Imports, agricultural, 16. 
Incubator, 157. 
Indigo, 351. 
Inland Sea, 52. 
Inns, 127, 197, 347. 
Interest, 137. 
International Concessions, wastes, 

57. 
Irrigation, 22, 49, 52, 55, 56. 63, 64, 

78, 83, 92. 105, 168, 192, 197, 231, 

243, 247-9, 250, 2^1, 252, 293, 

302, 346, 358. 
Irrigation water, 185-6, 249, 347. 
Island of Chungming, 17, 63, 64, 99. 



Jinricksha, 29, 347. 

Johnson, Margaret, quoted, 342. 343. 

Journey, A bit of, 337-40. 



INDEX 



375 



Kaiping, 305. 

Kang, 126, 127, 218, 230, 296. 

Kaoliang, 140, 143-4, 204, 205, 224 

235,305,311,315,316. 
Karafuto, 239, 241. 
Kashing, 95, 132, 153. 
Kawaguchi, Dr., 172, 186, 261, 
Kellner, 171, 172. 
Kiangsi, 96, 292. 
Kiangsu, 103, 110, 265, 277, 279, 

292 ; woman, 126, 193. 
Kiaochow, 141 ; bay, 191, 193. 
Kilns, 124, 145. 
Kirin, 309. 
Kittysols, 83. 
Kiyomizu temple, 349-53. 
. Kobe, 45 ; waste, 344. 
Korea, 320-8, 134, 142, 239, 274, 

333. 
Korean rice fields, 39, 239. 
Kunshan, 149. 
Kweichow, 282. 
Kyoto, 349-53 ; experiment station, 

347. 
Kyushu, 327, 329. 



Labourers, 30, 62, 213, 258, 303, 311, 

313. 
Lakes, 99, 357. 
Lake Biwa, 352. 
Land-building, 63, 99, 102, 107, 

302. 
Land owners, 366, 367. 
Landscape artists, 340. 
Lands reclaimable, 365. 
Land values, 329, 306, 392. 
Lantern, 197. 
Leaching, 224. 

League, Rev. T. J., 207, 216. 
Leeks, 23, 188. 

Legumes, 23, 87, 227, 305, 332-3. 
Levees, 97, 102, 353. 
Lewell, Judge Samuel, 222. 
Liao, 282, 313, 314, 318. 



Lime, 128, 153, 186, 344, 354; 

kilns, 128. 
Limestone, supplied to rice fields, 

246. 
Liquid manure, 69, 74, 171-8 232 

344, 348. 
Lotus, 119, 330, 354 ; roots, 119. 
Lumber, sawing, 65. 
Lunches, 76, 327-8. 
Lwan ho, 305. 
Lwanchow, 306. 

M 

Macaroni, 358. 

Maize, 235, 306, 316, 320, 358. 
Manchu headdress, 317. 
Manchuria, 127, 142, 143, 209, 282 
302, 304-28; fertilization, 19! 
312, 313. 
Manufacturers, 123, 124, 144, 268 
269, 293, 294, 343, 352. 

Manure, 175 ; human, 25, 74, 171- 
6, 225, 341, 344 ; liquid, 69, 74, 
171-8, 232, 344, .348; recep- 
tacles, 45, 87, 175, 177, 225, 344, 
silkworms, 176. 

Manure, green, 184-6, 251, 253, 260, 
271, 321-3, 344, 354r-7. 

Markets, 116-9, 128. 

Marmalades, 355. 

Matches, 209, 270. 

Matting, 84, 143, 146, 316, 343; 
rush, 84, 341, 343. 

Mattress making, 112, 113. 

Melons, 30, 247, 271. 

Meyermanns, Dr. B., 200. 

Milk, water buffalo, 132, 133. 

Mill, 111, 128, 319, 353. 

Millet, 17, 20, 140, 143, 196, 305, 
306, 307, 314, 315, 316, 360. 

Mississippi, 102. 

Mitsumata, 146. 

Moji, 45. 

Money, 76 ; paper, 59. ' 

Monuments, 353. 

" Mother of Petre," 222. 



376 



INDEX 



Mow. 224, 

Mud as fertilizer. 75, 8.S. 92, 97. 99, 

106, 149-55. 161-8. 329. 
Mukden. 19. 140. 144. 306. 309. 313, 

314. 315. 316. 317. 318, 319. 
Mulberry. 82. 83. 146. 152. 153. 176, 

271, 274-6, 293, 354, 355, 358; 

leaves, 274-5. 
Mulberry, paper, 146. 
Mules. 306, 313. 
Multiple croppins;. 22. 25, 233-7. 

240,311,322.323,344. 
Mushrooms, 142. 

N 

Nagasaki. 51, 53, 327, 328. 329. 
Nagoya Exp't Station. 276, 353. 
Nanking. 96, 124, 149, 277. 
Nara Exp't Station, 185-S, 271, 345, 

347. 
Netting, 270. 

Newchwang. 282, 313, 314, 315. 
Newspapers. 344. 
New Wiju, 319. 
Night soil, 30, 49. 70, 171 ff., 329, 

344, 348. 
Nitre-farming, 221. 
Nitrification. 221-4. 
Nitrogen, 127, 149 ; in exereta, 172 ; 

supplied, 186, 189, 190. 224. 246, 

260-3, 331, 332, 347. 353; 

removed, 189, 190, 221 ; lack, 

315, 
Nursery, 139, 
Nursery beds, rice, 249-52, 333, 340. 



O 



Oaks, 142, 282, 283, 322, 

Oats, 318, 320. 

Oils, 128, 168, 225 ; cakes, 128-33, 

168, 225. 
Onions, 49, 302. 
Ono, Professor. 33, 343. 
Oranges, 143, 356, 
Osaka, 45, 



Packins; cases. 146. 147. 

Paddies. 20. 241. 247. 

Paddy fields, returns and expenses, 
36("). 367. 

Paper materials, 146 ; bag«i, 32 ; 
mulberry. 146. 

Parker, Edward C, 315. 

Parking, 298. 350. 358. 

Paton,^274. 275. 

Peaches, 355 ; orchard. 41, 42, 
356. 

Peak, Hongkong. CA. 

Peanuts. 200. 224. 360. 

Pear orchard. 32. .344. 

Pears, 303. 343, 355. 

Peas, 87, 119; sprouted. 111). 

Pei-ho, 293. 

Peking. 300. 

Perry, Commodore, 27, 

Phosphorus, in excreta, 172. 174 ; 
in river water. 174 ; supplied, 75, 
103. 127. 183. 186 90, 224, 246, 
258. 331. 332. 347, 353 ; removed, 
189. 190. 225. 315. 

Pile cU-iving. 2t). 

Pine boughs, 84, 134, 137, 138, 321, 
355. 

Pine nursery, 139. 

Pine, umbrella, 355. 

Pirates. 80. 

Plastering, 143 5. 215. 216. 

IMougli. 199, 333. 

Ploughing. 92. 168, 169, 198, 199, 
251, 252. 331. 

Police, 72. 

Polishing rice, 268, 269. 

Pongee, 282. 

Population, country village, 37 ; 
Japan. 16, 365 ; Manchuria, 309 ; 
Aichi, 354 ; Nara. .347 ; Sliizuoka, 
366 ; Tokushima, 352 ; inban 
and rural, 365, .366 ; increase, 
365 ; density, 16, 17, 18, 53, 197, 
199, 284; Shantung, 199; 
199, 284 ; Shantung, 199. 



INDEX 



377 



Potassium, in excreta, 172 ; in 
floors, 223; removed, 188, 189, 
221, 223, 315 ; supplied, 75, 103, 
127, 183, 186-90, 228, 246, 331, 
347, 353 ; in river water, 174. 

Potatoes, 19, 181, 302, 330, 360. 
See also Sweet potatoes. 

Poultry, 159, 160 ; per mile, 16, 160. 

Poyang lake, 98. 

Press, 125, 132. 

Prices, 76, 77, 78, 92, 109, 116-8, 
119, 125, 133, 135, 137, 145-7, 
156, 160, 196, 204, 250, 269-72, 
273-7, 344, .346. 

Prizes, 333, 344. 

Pruning, 286, 287, 302. 

Pump, 200, 252, 262, 263, 293. 

Pumping, 252, 254, 265. 

Putai, 09. 

R 

Railroads, 317. 

Raincoats, 28. 

Rainfall, 19, 109, 200, 202, 241, 304. 

Rain hats, 83. 

Rainy-day shoes, 29. 

Rake, 140. 

Rape, 20, 115, 128, 168, 170, 235, 

254, 279, 333, 360. 
Receptacles for waste, 45, 89, 175, 

177, 225. 
Reforestation tract, 193-5. 
Rent, 184, 302, 366. 
Reservoirs, 98, 105, 231. 
Rice, 20, 21, 22, 23, 63, 87, 238-72, 

297, 329, 330, 331, 339, 340, 352, 

354, 355, 356, 358 ; preparing for, 

168, 169, 170 ; consumed, 238 ; 

produced, 241 ; seed-bed, 250-4, 

336. 
Rice chaff, 132, 260. 
Rice culture, 238-72 ; fanning, 266, 

268 ; harvesting, 266 ; pohshing, 

268, 269 ; threshing, 266. 
Rice fields. 332, 333, 336, 337, 345, 

353, 355; area, 39, 99, 238; 

weeds, 337. 



Rice paddies, 42, 43, 241, 243, 330, 

336, 337, 355, 356. 
Rice straw, 269, 270. 
Richard, 272. 
Richardson, 214. 
Ricksha, 49, 109, 197, 225, 228. 
Ridging, 73, 91, 95, 107, 305, 311. 
Roads, 122, 193, 209-11, 225, 299, 

330, 336 ; in Japan, 41, 330. 
Rondot, 282. 
Roofs, 142-4. 
Rooting sUps, 292. 
Roots, wheat, 237. 
Pvose, white, 310 ; yellow, 195. 
Ross, Prof. E. A., 207, 241. 
Rotation of crops, 28, 331-5, 354 ; 

of soil, 150. 
Rothamsted experiments, 121. 
Run-off, 186, 245, 246. 
Rush, 84, 336, 337, 340-2. 
Rye, 320. 

S 

Saddle, Korean, 141-2. 

Saline deposits, 102. 

Sahne districts, 293, 295, 297, 

298. 
Salt, 124, 292-5, 297, 305, 312, 

330. 
Salted cabbage, 115, 170, 235. 
Samshui, 82, 87. 
Sandals, 270. 

Sanitation, 25, 75, 78, 175, 284. 
Sapporo, 329. 
Sawing, 65. 
Scales, 117, 132. 
Scidmore, Consul-General, 329. 
Scott, Rev. W. H., 198. 
Seal on goods, 196, 215. 
Searchlight, 72. 
Sea wall, 98. 
Seaweed, 31, 32. 
Seed drill, 212, 213. 
Seoul, 326. 

Servants, 109, 207, 208. 
Sewage, 30, 172-8, 344, 347. 



378 



INDEX 



Shanghai, 27, 37, 99, 109, 114, 116, 

129, 139, 149, 151, 161, 172-6; 

sale of wastes, 22. 
Shantung, 57, 100, 109, 126, 134, 

140-1, 194-229, 282, 292, 315, 

316 ; population density, 15, 191, 

196 ; boy, 227 ; labourers, 223 ; 

crops per year, 17 ; rainfall, 19, 

200, 202. 
Sheep, 55, 122, 203 ; per mile, 16. 
Shells, 155. 
Shimonoseki, 336. 
Ship building, 84, 86, 87. 
Shizuoka Exp't station, 355, 356. 
Shoes, rainy-day, 29. 
Shops, 34. 
Shrimp, 155. 
Sickle, 266. 
Sikiang, 80, 92. 
Silk, 273-83 ; amount, 24, 146, 273, 

274 ; worms, 274, 275, 322. 
Silk culture, 24, 146, 273-83; 

waste, 176. 
Silk, wild, 282. 

Silk worms, wild, 282-83, 322. 
Size of rice paddies, 241. 
Shppers, 270. 
Smoking, 87, 179, 270. 
Snails, 155. 
Soil survey, 362. 
Soldiers, 291, 313. 
Soochow, 134. 
Soot, 127. 

Sorghum, 140, 143-5, 315. 
Soy beans, 87, 110, 188, 189, 225, 

237, 269, 270, 301, 332, 333. 
Spading, 181. 
Sphere of Influence, 191. 
Sprouted beans and peas, 119. 
Squash, 330, 345. 
Staging, 66. 

Stanley, Dr. Arthur, 132, 175. 
Statuary, floral, 67. 
Steaming, 130. 
Stem fuel, 124, 133-4, 140, 141, 

354. 
Stove, 207-8. 



Straw, 128, 129, 132, 143, 144, 146, 
224, 248, 269, 270, 337, 353 ; as 
mulch, 34, 103, 287, 330, 353, 
360 ; as fertilizer, 336, 361. 

Straw braid, 146, 200. 

Streets, 49, 65, 219, 221, 299. 

Subsidies, 333, 344. 

Subsoils, 227, 353. 

Sugar cane, 81. 

Sulphur, supplied, 246. 

Sungari, 309. 

Superphosphate, 332. 

Sweet potatoes, 63, 206, 330, 358, 
360. 

Swine, 72, 121, 200, 311 ; per mile, 
16. 

Swing day, 320. 

Swinging basket, 266. 

Szechwan, 125, 223, 273, 275, 282, 
286, 295, 297. 



Taiping rebellion, 249. 

Taku, 293, 298. 

Tally sticks, 78, 85. 

Taro, 121,247, 345. 

Taxes, 31, 292, 368, 369, 370. 

Tea, 24, 77, 103, 128, 146, 157,284- 

290, 353, 356. 
Teams, 304, 349, 311. 
Temperature, Manchuria, 304. 
Temple, 349-351. 
Tenants, 367. 
Terraces, 49, 71, 98, 244, 245, 318, 

329, 338-40, 356. 
Textiles, 145. 
Thatching, 57, 144, 269. 
Thery, Edmond, 308*. 
Threshing, 266. 

Tientsin, 291-303, 304 ; crops, 19. 
Tile, 143. 

Time economizing, 23, 230-7. 
Tobacco, 110, 217, 355, 358. 
Tokito, Professor, 33, 329, 350. 
Tokushima, 351. 
Tokyo, 174 ; plain, 358, 359. 



INDEX 



379 



Transplanting, 24, 202, 251, 253, 

25-4-8,306,311, 350. 
Trellises, cucumbers, 36, 345 ; 

pears, 21. 
Trenching, 107. 
Tsinan, 100, 193, 194. 
Tsingtao, 134, 193, 196, 197-8, 207, 

291. 
Tungting lake, 98. 
Tussur silkworms, 182, 322. 
Typhoon, 64. 
Tzeliutsing, 296-8. 

U 

Utilization of waste, 25, 171-90, 
204,221,227,236,245. 



Vegetables, 45, 87, 114, 115, 116, 

303, 330, 345, 358, 300. 
Vegetarians, 120, 121. 
Vehicles, 209, 210, 211,319. 
Villages, crowded, 37, 41. 
Violets, 45. 

W 

Wages, 30, 92, 109, 110, 137, 204, 

250, 292, 303. 
Wall, Chinese, 307, 308. 
War, cost, 308. 
Warming, 123, 125. 
Washington, Booker T., 174. 
Waste, Utilization, 75, 171-90,204, 

221, 225, 226, 236, 2()0. 
Water, per ton of crop, 20 ; supply, 

69 ; for transplanting, 199, 200. 
Water buffalo, 84, 128, 132, 200, 

296. 
Water caltropes, 119. 
Water chestnuts, 119. 
Water grass, 119. 
Watermelons, 247. 
Waterwheel, 263, 264, 319, 352. 
Weaving, 110. 



Weed and pasture land, 183--6, 258, 
260, 356, 360. 

Weeds, 33(). 

Weeders, 345-6. 

Weeding, 262, 336, 345, 346. 

Weihaiwei, 191. 

Weihsicn, 197. 

Wells, 197, 200, 201 ; salt, 124. 

West river, 80-92. 

Wheat, 197, 204, 213, 224, 232-9, 
241, 256, 277, 301, 306, 315, 318, 
325, 326, 332, 347, 360; fer- 
tilizers removed by, 190. 

Wheelbarrow, 62, 76, 210 ; men, 
62, 114,209. 

Whipping cotton, 130. 

Whitewash, 196. 

Wiju, 319. 

Wilder, Amos P., 72. 

Wild silk, 282-3. 

Williams, Consul-General E. T., 
292, 303. 

Windbreaks, 291, 302, 306. 

Windmills, 293, 294. 

Winter crops, 37, 87, 179. 

Wolff, 171, 172. 

Women, 29, 65, 75, 76, 218 ; glean- 
ing, '>99, 300. 

Wood, 141, 142,336,337. 

Woosung, .53. 

Wu, Mrs., 126, 178, 218, 249-52. 

Wuchow, 80, 83, 84. 



Yalu, 282, 319, 320. 

Yangtse, 53, 93, 96, 98, 99. 

Yellow river, 191,291. 

Yellow rose, 195. 

Yields, 119, 142, 202, 204, 214, 223, 
224, 227, 235, 238, 239, 250, 302, 
316, 318, 331, 332, 340, 344, 354, 
356, 366. 

Yokohama, 27, 124, 174. 

Yu, The Great, 100, 101. 194. 



